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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.
E. G. Estochen, J. E. Klein
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 79-82
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Processing, Transportation, and Storage | doi.org/10.13182/FST48-79
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 38 cm (15 inch) long metal hydride bed fabricated using 11.4 cm (4.5 inch) O.D., standard schedule 316/316L stainless steel pipe was fitted with 22 strain gauges to measure tangential and longitudinal stress resulting from hydride absorption and desorption cycling. Tests were conducted using two different LaNi4.25Al0.75 metal hydride fill-levels in the bed.Tests conducted with hydride filled to two-thirds (1.75L) of the 2.63L total bed volume resulted in a maximum stress less than one-third of the pipe's ASME Code allowable, for hydride absorption up to a hydrogen-to-metal ratio (H/M) of 0.86. After 15 absorption/desorption tests and hydride passivation, examination of the bed interior revealed a significant decrease in particle size and increase in hydride height. The second fill level had 0.4L of fresh hydride added to the bed's cycled hydride material, and 56 absorption/desorption tests, up to a gas loading of 0.83 H/M performed. Second fill tests resulted in maximum stresses less than 40% of the ASME Code allowable. Post-test bed radiographs showed a further increase in the apparent hydride fill height, and internal component deformation.
