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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.
R. E. Blanco, G. I. Cathers, L. M. Ferris, T. A. Gens, R. W. Horton, E. L. Nicholson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 1 | September 1964 | Pages 13-22
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A19270
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Potential processing methods for graphite-matrix nuclear reactor fuels which contain coated particles and/or ceramics are discussed. Both nonaqueous and aqueous processing methods are being developed. Fuels containing either uncoated or carbon-coated particles generally are first burned in oxygen at 800–1200 C to eliminate the graphite as CO2 and convert the uranium, thorium and other metallic constituents of the fuel to their respective oxides. The combustion ash (oxides) can then either be treated by a nonaqueous volatility method or be dissolved or leached in a suitable aqueous reagent in preparation for decontamination and recovery of the fuel by solvent extraction. In the Fluoride Volatility and Chloride Volatility methods, the constituents of the ash are converted to the respective halides; decontamination and recovery is then achieved by selective volatilization in the fluoride volatility method and, possibly, with chloride volatility. The chlorides can also be dissolved in water in preparation for solvent extraction. Fuel particles coated with such materials as Al2O3, BeO and SiC can be separated from the graphite matrix by a variety of methods other than burning; for example, disintegration of the fuel in boiling 90% HNO3 or anodic disintegration in dilute nitric acid. Special methods are then required for recovery of the fuel.
