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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
A. Ibrahim, D. L. Henderson, L. A. El-Guebaly, P. P. H. Wilson, M. E. Sawan, ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 726-730
Nuclear Analysis | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8994
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of neutron streaming through the divertor He-access pipes of the ARIES compact stellarator fusion power plant on the shielding performance of its components were investigated in this analysis. A 3-D analysis for the most promising design of the He-access pipe with shielding plug and inserts indicated that neutron attenuation through the shielded pipe is not sufficient to eliminate the issue of neutron streaming. The results show that the damage exceeded the limits near the pipe for the manifold, vacuum vessel, and magnet. Precautions should be taken that include changing the pipe design and orientation, avoiding rewelding the manifold and vacuum vessel near the pipe, and/or relocating the magnet away from the pipe. The neutron flux behind the pipe is excessive, mandating additional local shield (∼1 m) to protect the externals.
