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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.
M. F. Osborne, E. L. Long, Jr., J. G. Morgan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 22 | Number 4 | August 1965 | Pages 420-433
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE65-A20628
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of experiments to test the Experimental Gas-Cooled Reactor (EGCR) fuel element concept was conducted in the Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORR) and the Engineering Test Reactor (ETR). The elements tested were sintered UO2 fuel pellets contained in stainless steel tubing. Principal test variables were fuel pellet geometry, cladding temperature, and fuel burnup. After irradiation, the elements were examined for dimensional stability, integrity of the cladding, the fractional release of fission gas from the fuel, and any interactions between the fuel and the cladding. Some elements were subjected to unusual and extreme conditions of operation and others were not built to EGCR specifications. Such elements experienced three types of failure: 1) severe cladding fractures, 2) microscopic cladding defects, and 3) failures in associated components. Detailed examination of these experiments showed potential problems which may occur if EGCR fuel elements are operated outside design conditions.
