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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.
Takao Kawano, Naohiro Tsuboi, Hirotsugu Tsujii, Yamato Asakura, Tatsuhiko Uda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 405-408
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A954
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A previously developed analyzer for detecting extremely small concentrations of hydrogen in air was evaluated by using it to distinguish hydrogen isotopes. The analyzer utilizes the functions of a gas chromatograph and an atomic absorption spectrophotometer and is based on the reduction reaction of mercuric oxide with hydrogen. Three test samples were used: gas mixtures containing both protium and deuterium with almost equal concentrations of about 5, 20, or 50 cm3/1000 m3 diluted in nitrogen. Each measurement was repeated more than 30 times, and chromatograms were obtained for each test sample. Examination of the chromatograms showed that the retention times for the protium and deuterium could be clearly distinguished. The retention times were virtually constant and indistinguishable, independent of the concentration and repetition time. The peak areas for the protium and deuterium were also stable, independent of the repetition time. Moreover, there was a clear linear relationship between the peak areas and concentrations for both elements. These results show that the analyzer can distinguish the two hydrogen isotopes and estimate concentrations of each as small as about 5 cm3/1000 m3. They also show that it may be possible to use the analyzer to monitor tritium concentrations.
