ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
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. Itakura, T. Hirai, H. Hojo, J. Kohagura, Y. Shima, S. Tsunoda, M. Yoshikawa, K. Yatsu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 1 | January 2003 | Pages 243-247
Diagnostics | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A11963603
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An electron density profile is observed by using an ultrashort-pulse reflectometry in the central cell of the GAMMA 10 device. The pulse having 65 ps FWHM is launched into the plasma in the O-mode and reflected at the cut off layer. The frequency range of the receiving system is 6 to 11 GHz. Time of flight of the received signal is measured via a time to amplitude converter and processed by a computer. Here, electron density profile lower than 1.5 × 1018 m−3 is reconstructed within one-shot data. The time variation of the electron density profile is acquired. Reflected wave has information of fluctuation, simultaneously. Frequency spectrum of the fluctuation is also observed.
