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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.
Mikio Enoeda et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 4 | May 2005 | Pages 1023-1030
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - First Wall, Blanket, and Shield | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A822
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fusion Council of Japan has established the long-term program for the development of blanket in 1999. In the program, the solid breeder blanket was selected as the primary candidate blanket of the fusion power demonstration plant in Japan, while liquid breeder blankets and high temperature solid breeder blanket have been identified as the attractive advanced blanket. Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) is leading the development of solid breeder blankets, while, universities and National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) are developing the advanced blankets for potential options of the fusion power demonstration plant and commercial power plants. ITER blanket module testing is regarded as one of the most important milestones, by which integrity of candidate blanket design is qualified for the fusion power demonstration plant, together with material irradiation data by International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). Japan is investigating the possibility of testing all types of blankets under TBWG framework with both of JAERI and universities/NIFS involvements. This paper presents a plan and strategy for the development of test blanket modules and ITER blanket module testing in Japan.
