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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.
Youji Someya, Tetsuo Matsumoto, Ryoji Hiwatari, Yoshiyuki Asaoka, Kunihiko Okano, Takuya Goto, Yuichi Ogawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 478-482
IFE Drivers and Chambers | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8949
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Fast ignition Advanced Laser fusion reactor CONcept with a Dry first-wall and a high repetition laser (FALCON-D) has been proposed to investigate the potential of the fast ignitionin the reactor concepts. For the blanket system, two types of blanket concepts, i.e.asolid and a liquid metal breeder types using the reduced activation ferritic steel (F82H) were proposed.In this study, two types of blankets were designed, where the thickness of the blankets was minimized while keeping the net TBR larger than 1.07. One of the blanket concepts for FALCON-D is based on the solid breeder (Li2TiO3) with beryllium (Be) neutron multiplier and water cooling. The second blanket concept is based on liquid metal breeder (Li17Pb83) with water cooling. The maintenance method for FALCON-D is applicable to both blanket types. The net electric power of the solid breeder blanket is 110 MW larger than that of the liquid metal breeder blanket. This is mainly caused by the differences in the neutron energy multiplication. In the case of the liquid metal breeder blanket with water cooling, the net TBR 1.09 is achieved without Be as the neutron multiplier. Such design without Be can remove a risk of accident due to the chemical reaction between beryllium and water. From the economical point of view, the solid breeder blanket with water cooling, which generates a larger electric power, is desirable. On the other hand, if the combination of beryllium and water cooling was not acceptable from a viewpoint of safety, the blanket system with the liquid metal would be another possible option.
