Nuclear Power Stations - Decommissioning

[Loosehead]

The huge cost of decommisioning is often quoted as a down side to Nuclear power what I was wondering is is it really necessary? Does anyone know whether a Nuclear power station must at some point be decommissioned or can we continue to upgrade and uprate at a fraction of the cost and keep them going? I mean anyone actually know why they become unservicable or is it just that up to now we have gone through a sort of "is it good? or is it bad?" sort of pendulum over the last 40 years or so and have decommissioned for political reasons? Or is there a finite life of a station when it must be totally scrapped and started again? A lot of questions I know but I'm trying to understand the issue more thouroughly!

[shaneystar]

It's all ever so complicated and technical but good old Wikipedia have an excellent article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power

[einsteinsdog]

Even coal fired power stations dont last forever. In fact when you consider the heat and pressure etc then its a wonder they last even 50 years and some are about that age . I suppose eventually the core wears out and servicing is pretty damn hard when you`re getting bombarded by neutrons and stray rediation . Walking with a lead suit on is tricky......