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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.
L. EL-Guebaly, L. Mynsberge, C. Martin, D. Henderson, ARIES-ACT Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 179-192
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-819
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reports the main results of the activation analysis of the ARIES-ACT1 power plant and its attractive environmental characteristics. The approach aims at examining several activation-related effects that influence the neutron-induced radioactivity, decay heat, waste classification, recyclability, and clearability of radioactive materials. Detailed studies are presented and provide information about the interdependence of material choices and activation response functions. It is also shown how the activation analysis can help address the inboard decay heat problem, one of the most important safety-related issues for tokamaks, and point the way to proper solutions through redefining the radial build to meet the design needs. Furthermore, the study suggests an integral management strategy to change what is now a costly waste disposal concern for fusion into a valued commodity via the further development of the recycling and clearance approaches.
