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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
L. Blumenau, H. Branover, A. El-Boher, E Spero, S. Sukoriansky, G. Talmage, E. Greenspan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 914-921
Innovative Concepts for Power Conversion | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24853
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In light of advances in the conceptual design of Liquid Metal Magneto Hydro Dynamic (LMMHD) Power Conversion Systems (PCS), a review describing matching possiblities between LMMHD PCS and fusion reactor blankets is presented. It is found that the LMMHD technology may enable the conversion of high-temperature blanket energy into electricity at efficiencies greater than 60%. Being free of moving parts, at least in the high-temperature range, this technology might be easier to implement than technologies based on turbomachinery. LMMHD PCSs can be designed to be completely static and practically hermetically sealed providing simple systems, with expected high reliability, facilitated maintenance and tritium control. Moreover, in none of the LMMHD PCSs considered is there a need for lithium-to-water heat exchange, thus increasing safety and minimizing tritium handling difficulties.
