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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
T. D. Bohm, M. E. Sawan, P. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 731-735
Nuclear Analysis | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8995
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Gaps exist between the first wall/shield (FWS) modules of ITER to allow for fitting by remote handling equipment. Simplified three-dimensional models were used at the top and mid-plane locations to analyze gap streaming. Heating, helium production, and fast neutron fluence were examined at the front of the vacuum vessel and the magnet for both straight and stepped gaps. In addition, total nuclear heating values in the inboard magnet and central solenoid were examined for straight and stepped vertical gaps and for combined horizontal and vertical straight gaps. The results show significant radiation streaming effects that are more pronounced for fast neutron fluence and helium production. Furthermore, it was found that stepping the gap significantly reduces the local peaking, but has little effect on the relative average values of radiation effects. The results also show increases up to 75% in total magnet heating at the inboard mid-plane location for a straight 2 cm combined vertical and horizontal gap.
