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From operator to entrepreneur: David Garcia applies outage management lessons
David Garcia
If ComEd’s Zion plant in northern Illinois hadn’t closed in 1998, David Garcia might still be there, where he got his start in nuclear power as an operator at age 24.
But in his ninth year working there, Zion closed, and Garcia moved on to a series of new roles—including at Wisconsin’s Point Beach plant, the corporate offices of Minnesota’s Xcel Energy, and on the supplier side at PaR Nuclear—into an on-the-job education that he augmented with degrees in business and divinity that he sought later in life.
Garcia started his own company—Waymaker Resource Group—in 2014. Recently, Waymaker has been supporting Holtec’s restart project at the Palisades plant with staffing and analysis. Palisades sits almost exactly due east of the fully decommissioned Zion site on the other side of Lake Michigan and is poised to operate again after what amounts to an extended outage of more than three years. Holtec also plans to build more reactors at the same site.
For Garcia, the takeaway is clear: “This industry is not going away. Nuclear power and the adjacent industries that support nuclear power—and clean energy, period—are going to be needed for decades upon decades.”
In July, Garcia talked with Nuclear News staff writer Susan Gallier about his career and what he has learned about running successful outages and other projects.
T. A. Heltemes, G. A. Moses
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 796-800
Technical Paper | Nuclear Analysis and Experiments | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1588
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The BUCKY 1-D simulation code was used to simulate the hydrodynamic compression and thermonuclear ignition of a DT filled capsule that mimics the specifications set forth by the Fusion Test Facility (FTF) working group. This paper focuses on two key aspects of the ongoing hydrodynamics simulation work being performed at the University of Wisconsin.The first set of simulations was performed to obtain a baseline result for comparison. This baseline utilized the High Average Power Laser (HAPL) target ion and X-ray threat spectra scaled down from 365 MJ to 29.75 MJ. The second set of simulations was a target simulation initiated from conditions that were expected to be found at the point of ignition of the FTF DT target.The results of these simulations allowed for the creation of time-dependent X-ray and ion threat spectra, which will be used in future chamber simulations in support of the FTF design effort to assess the thermal response of test modules located within the facility.