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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
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.
Nobuyuki Asakura et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 70-75
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16876
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design study of the magnetic configuration and divertor geometry for the “advanced divertor” in a Demo tokamak reactor is summarized. Equilibrium calculation code, TOSCA, was developed for the super-X divertor (SXD) design by introducing two parameters, i.e. location of the super-X null and a ratio of the poloidal magnetic fluxes at the super-X null to that at the separatrix. SXD has an advantage to increase connection length from the divertor null point to the divertor target (L//div), which is 1.6-1.8 times larger with increasing fSX, compared to that in the conventional long-leg divertor. Whereas flux expansion near the super-X null was increased, increase in the target wet area (Awet) was small. Snowflake divertor (SFD) magnetic configuration was produced by adjusting PFC locations and the current distribution. L//div was largely increased near the SF null in the conventional divertor size. Key issues remain: control scenario for SFnull and high plasma shaping should be developed, and appropriate SFD design is necessary. For the advanced divertor design, divertor coils inside TFC are preferable due to the maximum current and size.
