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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.
Robert L. Fish
Nuclear Technology | Volume 31 | Number 1 | October 1976 | Pages 85-95
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31701
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of two notch geometries on the tensile properties of fast-neutron-irradiated, annealed Type 304 stainless steel were investigated. Notch strengthening was observed under test conditions that promote transgranular failure accompanied by significant ductility (>5% total elongation) as measured using an unnotched specimen. These conditions existed at room temperature and moderate fluence levels (∼3 to 6 x 1022 n/cm2, E >0.1 MeV, ∼3 to 6 x 1026 n/m2, E >16 fJ). No notch effect was observed at 450 and 700°F (505 and 644 K) at any fluence level investigated. A notch weakening may exist under test conditions promoting low ductility (<1.5% total elongation) intergranular failure. At a nominal tensile strain rate (2.67 x 10-3/min, 4.45 x 10 -5/s), notch weakening was exhibited near 1100°F (866 K) and neutron fluences above 3 x 1022 n/cm2 (3 x 1026 n/m2). At a nominal strain rate, the notch sensitivity is independent of notch geometry between radii of 0.003 and 0.030 in. (0.076 and 0.76 mm). The notch sensitivity becomes notch geometry dependent at higher strain rates due to higher ductilities associated with a transition in the deformation and failure mode.
