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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.
Peter Klumpp
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 258-271
Technical Paper | Economic | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33725
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The main reasons for conducting research and development (R&D) on an advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) with a high conversion ratio include an awareness of the limited availability of natural nuclear fuels, the low degree of utilization of this resource in present light water reactors (L WRs), and the necessary high capital investments in breeder reactor systems with high fuel utilization. Consequently, these R&D efforts, on the one hand, must greatly increase the utilization of uranium compared to the level achieved in L WR technology and, on the other hand, must reduce the capital investment compared to what is required in breeder reactor technology. If these criteria can be met economically, a future role would be indicated for APWRs as an interim technology during the transition from LWRs to breeder reactors and as a supplement to the latter line in a breeder/APWR symbiosis. It appears that an APWR will use nuclear resources economically but will also create higher costs for an electric utility than current LWR technology.
