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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.
Nicolas Woolstenhulme, Colby Jensen, Charles Folsom, Robert Armstrong, Junsoo Yoo, Daniel Wachs
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 5 | May 2021 | Pages 637-652
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1807280
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design evaluations and thermal-hydraulic predictions were undertaken to compare three candidate options for loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA)–testing capabilities at the Transient Reactor Test facility (TREAT). These options included a small water capsule, a large natural circulation capsule, and a forced-convection water loop. All options were found to create reasonable approximations of radial temperature gradients in fuel specimens prior to blowdown to a secondary tank. Given its minimalist form factor, the small water capsule was predicted to perform remarkably well in mimicking the thermal response of a 20-pellet fuel rodlet during a postulated LOCA event, while sensitivity studies showed versatility in adjusting conditions for specific test phenomena priorities. The large natural circulation capsule predictions showed representative capsule pressure evolution but indicated it would likely struggle to capture the desired fuel temperature response in the blowdown transition, primarily due to nonrepresentative cooling as its tall water column was discharged. These results were compared to previous water loop evaluations that had shown a capability for representing ideal test conditions, especially for longer rodlet test specimens in small bundles, while being achievable in a self-contained form factor to facilitate test logistics. Considering the broader cost and capability spectrum needed to support fuel safety research, these efforts resulted in a recommendation to pursue the small water capsule for near-term data needs specific to high-burnup fuel fragmentation, while continuing detailed development of the water loop to address ultimate data needs.