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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.
Faten N. Al Zubaidi, Kyle L. Walton, Robert V. Tompson, Tushar K. Ghosh, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 6 | June 2019 | Pages 790-800
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1542257
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of long-term oxidation on the total hemispherical emissivity of Type 316L stainless steel (SS 316L) is of interest in nuclear plant safety and is reported on here. ASTM standard C835-06 [American Society for Testing and Materials, 2006] was used for measuring the total hemispherical emissivity of this material for the following surface conditions: (1) “as-received” from the manufacturer (essentially unoxidized) and (2) oxidized in air at 573 K for up to 3000 h. The emissivity of the as-received samples varied within the range from 0.24 at 434 K to 0.34 at 1026 K. Oxidation in air at 573 K for 500 h increased the emissivity range of the oxidized sample from 0.28 at 429 K to 0.38 at 1096 K. There was no further significant change in emissivity observed following an increase in the oxidation time from 500 to 3000 h. It is suspected that the emissivity ceased to increase during the additional oxidation time because of chromium oxide that formed on the SS 316L surface inhibiting further oxidation.
