The use of a task force to rapidly identify and resolve condenser tube failures at Diablo Canyon power plant

Following the start-up of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, condenser tube failures began to occur at an unacceptable rate. Up to refueling outage, condenser tube failure was the single largest contributor to lost generating capacity. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG and E) had retubed the condenser in the mid-'70s with titanium tubes in response to environmental issues associated with the original copper/nickel tubes. Some staking of the tubes was performed then; however, the tubes were failing in nonstaked regions. In response to this problem, PG and E formed a task force to resolve the issue. In this paper, we describe the working of the task force in identifying the problem, the development of resolutions, and their implementation