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.
P. Norajitra, J. Reiser, H.-J. Ritzhaupt-Kleissl, S. Dichiser, J. Konrad, G. Ritz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 80-84
Divertor and High Heat Flux Components | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8880
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A He-cooled divertor concept for DEMO has been pursued at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) within the framework of the EU (European Union) power plant conceptual study since 2002. The design goal is to remove a DEMO-relevant heat flux of 10 MW/m2 at least. The current reference concept HEMJ (He-cooled modular divertor with jet cooling) relies on impingement cooling with high pressure helium (10 MPa, 600°C). This modular design employs small tiles made of tungsten, which are brazed to a thimble made of W-1%La2O3. The W finger units are connected to the main structure of ODS Eurofer steel. Machining tungsten is a challenging task due to its hardness and brittleness. It was found that EDM (electrical discharge machining) induce micro-cracks on the tungsten surfaces. Cutting techniques like turning, milling, grinding and the use of cutting wheels (CBN (cubic boron nitride) or diamond) carry the hope for manufacturing divertor tungsten parts with a high and repeatable quality. Further machining techniques development like pressing of tungsten plates is in process. In this contribution the status of the fabrication technology especially the machining of tungsten divertor parts will be outlined and the potential of mock-up quality improvement shall be discussed.
