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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.
Kenji Mashio, Mizuki Kasamatsu, Eisuke Noda
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 3 | March 2023 | Pages 346-353
Technical Paper—Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2087837
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has developed a computer-aided decision-making supporting panel system called DMP to support decision making of management staff in nuclear power plants by presenting associated information (e.g., plant situation and on-site/off-site conditions) in an organized and timely manner during emergency conditions. DMP will be located on-site as well as at an office off-site and will present associated information for staff and managers to share information and promote communications. DMP has been developed considering lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident including situation awareness distraction and workload issues under severe accidents. It was recognized that it is difficult to collect, organize, and analyze plant data and associated information under high-stress conditions and a severely degraded work environment. DMP will collect plant status information using plant chronological data logs and associated information, such as site situations (e.g., various kinds of information showing damaged equipment and hazard area, etc.), verbal/written status reports, and communication logs among staffs who perform corresponding actions at the site. DMP has been developed using a human-centered design approach based on International and Japanese human factors engineering design guidance (i.e., IEC 60964, “Nuclear Power Plants – Control Rooms – Design,” and JEAG 4617, “Guideline for Development and Design of Computerized Human-Machine Interface in the Central Control Room”) and verified with human factors verification (task support verification) to ensure the DMP support decision-making process. DMP will be workable to organize and present the current situations and recommendations to staff with collected data and policies/rules in emergency management plans.