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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.
C. Postolache, Lidia Matei, Rodica Georgescu, Gh. Ionita
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 220-223
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Decontamination and Waste | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A916
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Due to the remarkable capacity of water retaining, croslinked polyacrylic acids (PAA) represent an interesting alternative for tritiated water trapping. The study was developed on radiolytical processes in PAA:HTO systems derivated from irradiation of polymeric network by disintegration of tritium atoms from HTO. The aim of these studies is the identification of polymeric structures and optimal storage conditions.Sol and gel fractions were determinated by radiometrical methods using PAA labeled with 14-C at carboxylic groups and T at main chains of the polymer. Simulation of radiolytical processes was realized using radiation field emitted by a irradiation source of 60-Co which ensures a maximum of absorbed dose rate of 3 kGy/h. Self-radiolytical effects were investigated using labeled PAA in HTO with great radioactive concentration (37-185 GBq/mL). The experiment suggests as optimum for HTO storage as tritium liquid wastes a 1:30 PAA:HTO swelling degree at 18.5-37 MBqL. HTO radioactive concentration.RES studies of radiolytical processes were also realized on dry polyacrylic acid (PAA) and polyacrylic based hydrogels irradiated and determined at 77 K. In the study we observed the effect of swelling capacity of hydrogel o the formation of free radicals.
