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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.
E. J. Strait, E. D. Fredrickson, J.-M. Moret, M. Takechi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 53 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 304-334
Technical Paper | Plasma Diagnostics for Magnetic Fusion Research | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1674
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Magnetic diagnostics are essential for the operation and understanding of a magnetic fusion device. Magnetic data are used in real time to measure and control the current, shape, and position of the discharge; the thermal energy of the plasma; the confining magnetic field; and the currents in the magnet coils. Equilibrium reconstructions based on magnetic data yield the magnetic geometry of the plasma, providing the coordinates for interpretation of all other diagnostic measurements. Magnetic measurements also provide input for the analysis and feedback control of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities. This review focuses on the inductive loops and Hall effect probes that are used in nearly all present devices. We describe the principles of magnetic diagnostics and discuss issues related to their practical implementation. The interpretation of magnetic measurements for equilibrium reconstruction and for identification of MHD instabilities are summarized. Magnetic diagnostics based on inductive measurements are well understood in both implementation and interpretation and are expected to meet the needs of ITER. However, the challenges presented by future steady-state burning plasma experiments may require the development of other techniques. The prospects for addressing these challenges are reviewed, in particular, the status of possible approaches to long-pulse magnetic measurements.
