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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
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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.
I. Popescu, Gh. Ionita, I. Stefanescu, A. Kitamoto
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 108-111
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Science and Technology - Detritiation, Purification, and Isotope Separation | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-41
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The hydrophobic catalysts were originally conceived in Canada for the deuterium enrichment and tritium separation by hydrogen-liquid water isotopic exchange in nuclear field. Unlike the conventional hydrophilic catalysts, which becomes inefficient to direct contact with liquid water, the hydrophobic catalysts kept a high catalytic activity and stability, even under the direct contact with liquid water or in presence of humid gas. Based on the long experience of the authors, in the preparation, testing and evaluation of the performances of hydrophobic catalysts, and based on the reviewed references, this paper presents up-to-date R&D activities on the preparation methods and applications of the hydrophobic catalysts, in tritium separation. The objectives of the paper are: (1) to provide a database for selection of the most appropriate catalyst and catalytic packing for above mentioned processes (2) to asses and to find a new procedure for preparation of a new improved hydrophobic catalyst. From reviewed references we consider that platinum remains the most active and efficient catalytic metal and the TEFLON is the best wetproofing agent. A new improved hydrophobic Pt-catalyst has been proposed and is now underway. The main steps and experimental conditions of preparation are largely discussed. A new wet-proofing agent and a new binding agents (titanium oxide, cerium oxide, zirconium oxide) with catalytic role are proposed and tested. The physico-structural parameters of new improved catalyst have been determined and are discussed in details. The new proposal is a promising idea to improve the performances of conventional hydrophobic Pt-catalysts.