>After a while, reactor has to be rebuilt from totally new materials. The closest parallel we have is nuclear reactors. Navy Nuclear submarines are probably t

>After a while, reactor has to be rebuilt from totally new materials. The closest parallel we have is nuclear reactors. Navy Nuclear submarines are probably the most prevalent safe small reactors (US submarine reactors not K19) and they have significant lifespans extending across multiple decades. (source: passed my navy nuclear engineer exam in a past career) The resulting embrittled can/containment does need to be handled safely, but this is a capital depreciation that can be modeled and planned for.