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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
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.
K. Takahashi et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 156-159
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16894
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear analysis of the ITER equatorial EC launcher consisting of an unique blanket shield structure and a port plug installing millimeter (mm) wave components, neutron shields, cooling water lines, etc. has been carried out. The analysis results are used to determine heat and/or particle loads on its components and to evaluate the possibility of “hands-on maintainability” (personnel accessibility) to the launcher back-end. A significant radiation leak at the gaps between the port walls and port plug frame of the launcher was revealed. Another significant neutron leakage is through the port wall consisting of only stainless steel but without light isotopes such as water. The shut down dose rates was estimated at the port interspace behind the launcher at the same level of the required value of 100 Sv/h. This analysis offers the potential to modify the launchers shielding layout to minimize the above leakage and further reduce the shut down dose rates in the regions of personnel access.
