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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.
Edward M. Mouradian, Louis Baker, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 15 | Number 4 | April 1963 | Pages 388-394
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26455
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The burning temperatures and oxidation rates for uranium and zirconium metals in air were investigated analytically. The calculations were based on the assumption that the metal-oxygen reaction is controlled by atmospheric diffusion. Reaction is assumed to be limited by the rate at which oxygen can diffuse through a nitrogen-rich boundary layer. Expressions for mass transfer were obtained by applying the Lewis relation to accepted heat transfer correlations. Calculations were made for the case of vertical plates (foils), horizontal cylinders (wires), and spheres in both natural and forced convection. Characteristic dimensions ranging from 0.02 to 10 cm and flow velocities up to 3162 cm/sec (70 mph) were considered. Computed burning temperatures were compared with experimental measurements of the maximum temperature reached by burning foils of uranium, zirconium, and a zirconium alloy containing 14.9 wt.% titanium in natural convection. Experimental temperatures with zirconium were higher than calculated values while uranium temperatures were somewhat below theoretical. The calculations, however, correctly described the variation of burning temperature with foil width and appear to be good evidence for the proposed model of burning.
