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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.
A. Hasegawa, S. Nogami, S. Miwa, K. Abe, T. Taguchi, N. Igawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 44 | Number 1 | July 2003 | Pages 175-180
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Fusion Materials | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A329
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mechanical properties of advanced SiC/SiC composite and polycrystalline, monolithic -SiC under dual- and triple-ions irradiation to 1 and 10 dpa at 800°C, 1000°C, and 1300°C were investigated by a Nano-indentation test. Preliminary microstructural analysis by transmission electron microscopy was performed. Hardness and elastic modulus changes in response to ion irradiation were observed, but synergistic effects on these mechanical properties were not significant. In contrast, microstructural observation of the composites after 10 dpa at 1000°C showed that cavity formation behavior was dependent on the material and the helium or hydrogen implanted mode. The effect of gas elements on cavity formation and the mechanical properties are discussed.
