ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
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.
Shameem Hasan, Tushar K. Ghosh
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 371-379
Technical Paper | Miscellaneous | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15791
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium oxide (U3O8) nanoparticles were synthesized and coated in situ with porous, mesostructured silica using a modified sol-gel method for use as a catalyst. The catalytic property of coated U3O8 nanoparticles was evaluated by exposing them to an aqueous solution of benzene at 500 mg/l at room temperature. The presence of benzene was not detected by an ultraviolet (UV)-visible (UV-vis) spectrometer after 6 weeks of exposure to coated uranium oxide nanoparticles, indicating the particles' potential as a catalyst. Based on the results of the benzene destruction, it may be suggested that the coated U3O8 nanoparticle-based catalyst has the potential to destroy hydrocarbons, aromatics, and various toxic substances such as perchlorates and 1,4-dioxane from groundwater. However, further experiments are necessary to explore the full potential of the catalyst. Pluronic-123, n-butanol, and 2-propanol were used as surfactant, cosurfactant, and continuous phase, respectively, for the synthesis of the U3O8 nanoparticles, which were formed through nucleation, growth, and subsequent aggregation in the solution phase. The nanoparticles were coated in situ using an aqueous solution of tetraethyl orthosilicate. The coated particles were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction, and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy. These measurements revealed that U3O8 particles ranging from 4- to 10-nm were distributed exclusively inside the silica matrix.