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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
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.
A. R. Raffray, F. Escourbiac, F. J. Fuentes, L. Giancarli, B. Macklin, A. Martin, M. Merola, R. Mitteau, J. Palmer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | October 2015 | Pages 465-476
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The overall programmatic objective of ITER is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. The physics part of this objective (including burning plasma, Q of at least 10 and stationary conditions) seems to be well appreciated by the scientific community internationally. However, there seems to be less of an emphasis on the fusion technology part of the objective, which includes demonstrating the availability and integration of technologies essential for a fusion reactor and testing components including tritium breeding blanket modules for a future reactor. In fact important technology information will be obtained from the design, fabrication and operation of the vacuum vessel and out-of-vessel systems such as magnets, tritium system, cryogenic systems, cooling water systems, and associated safety aspects. In addition, DEMO-relevant information will be obtained from the operation of breeding blanket test modules in ITER. Moreover valuable information applicable to DEMO and beyond will also be obtained in a number of areas linked to in-vessel components. This paper summarizes the DEMO-relevant fusion technology information that will be obtained from ITER with a major focus on the areas linked to in-vessel components.
