> Nuclear plants can operate for over 80 years and run for 100 years if they are well-maintained. By contrast, solar panels and wind turbines last only about 20

> Nuclear plants can operate for over 80 years and run for 100 years if they are well-maintained. By contrast, solar panels and wind turbines last only about 20 years. This is theorized. There doesn't exist a nuclear power plant that is even nearly that old. The oldest still functioning reactor is the Benzau nuclear power plant in Switzerland. It started operating 53 years ago. Meanwhile the oldest operating(IIRC), grid-connected array is the TISO-10 (also in Switzerland), which started operations in 1982. Solar panels usually don't just fail catastrophically, but lose efficiency gradually. In the 35-year assessment of the mentioned plant it was noted that the rate of degradation was around 0.38%/year. 20 years is just the warranty period for a certain performance level.