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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
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.
F. Y. Tsang, W. Leo, C. Sahraoui, S. Wuthrich, M. Shaerb
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 962-971
Lithium Blanket Module Program at the LOTUS Neutron Source Facility | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24859
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of passive dosimetry irradiation experiments were performed inside the Lithium Blanket Module (LBM) with the 14-MeV neutron source at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Sets of passive dosimetry foils were utilized to measure fusion-reactor-blanket neutronic environments. The dosimeter reaction data were analyzed and compared with calculational models. These experimental results demonstrate the ability to simulate low power deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma shots by measuring the neutron field in a reactor-representative fusion blanket environment. The dosimeter results can determine the entire neutron spectrum along the full length of the LBM test rod. The set of selected dosimetry materials meets the requirements of neutronic characterization in future LBM-TFTR D-T and high power deuterium-deuterium (D-D) plasma experiments.
