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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
P. A. Bagryansky et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 253-255
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16919
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of fusion energy will require materials resilient to harsh bombardment by energetic neutrons and plasma. The Gas Dynamic Trap (GDT) concept in Novosibirsk is proposed as a neutron and plasma source to test and validate appropriate materials. Recent results showed plasma beta of 0.6, provide a solid basis for extrapolating to a fusion relevant neutron source. Relative to previous magnetic mirror neutron sources, the GDT concept operates with simpler axisymmetric magnets and at higher efficiency. Plasma in the GDT device operating at the present time in the Budker Institute includes two ion components: 250 eV maxwellian warm ions and anisotropic hot ion population produced by 25 keV 5 MW oblique neutral beam injection.
