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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
R. H. Karcher, R. C. Erdmann, O. C. Baldonado
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 31 | Number 3 | March 1968 | Pages 492-499
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A17592
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The feasibility of track-length distribution biasing for the calculation of spatial and angular particle flux far from the source in an infinite medium is investigated. Calculations are performed for an idealized particle transport model having an exact analytical solution, and results for scalar flux are given to a penetration distance of approximately 60 mean-free-paths. Results are also given for angular distributions. It is found that the “optimum” biasing parameter “a” for scalar flux prediction can be approximated by a exp(−a) = 0.368c n/40 (a revised form of an empirical expression from an earlier study), where c is the probability of scatter and n is the desired penetration distance. If appropriate corrections are made for the effects of inelastic and hydrogen scatter, the present results can provide useful guidance in the application of the track-length distribution biasing technique to more realistic systems.
