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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
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.
J. L. Cook, A. L. Wall
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 31 | Number 2 | February 1968 | Pages 234-240
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A18235
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermal radiative capture cross sections of 87 nuclides were computed using a Monte Carlo selection of reduced neutron widths, and the assumption that distant resonance levels determine the cross section. Histograms of possible cross-section values were prepared for each nuclide, and the 87 samples analyzed to find the overall accuracy of estimation. The results indicated a fluctuation of 0.4 ± 0.6 for the logarithm of the ratio of experiment to the calculated mean cross section. Tables of results for means and standard deviations are given together with the results of Keane's summation formula. The possible use of this technique in estimating unknown cross sections is discussed.
