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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
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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.
Sebahattin Ünalan, S. Orhan Akansu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 1 | January 2003 | Pages 110-121
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A252
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermal and neutronic behavior of a peaceful nuclear explosion reactor (PACER) producing [approximately equal to]1.2 GWe electrical-power from fusion explosions in a cylindrical explosion chamber (radius = 30 m, height = 75 m) are analyzed. For determination of flibe mass (m) required for safe operation temperatures and pressures with enough tritium breeding ratio (TBR) and high M (fusion energy absorption ratio), neutronic calculations are carried out for different coolant zone positions (DR) and coolant zone thicknesses (DRc). Inlet pressure and temperatures (Tin) of flibe are 1 atm, and 823 and 1540 K.For all DR values, TBR and M reached saturation values of 1.27 and 1.07 at certain DRc values, respectively. Thereby, m increases with increased DR. To decrease flibe mass requirements, DR must be as low as possible. However, this causes high equilibrium pressures and enormous temperatures. Therefore, to decrease mechanical and chemical damages on the walls, DR must be high. The highest equilibrium pressures for the investigated parameters are [approximately equal to]100 and [approximately equal to]160 atm for Tin = 823 K and Tin = 1540 K, respectively. For the equilibrium temperature and pressures of 1750 K and [approximately equal to]20 atm, m and DR should be 3000 tonnes and 400 cm for Tin = 823 K, and 25000 tonnes and 700 cm for Tin = 1540 K.
