Extending Life Of Nuclear Plants ???

Here is a discussion in The New York Times about utilities that want to extend the life of their nuclear power plants to 80 years:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/business/power-plants-seek-to-extend-life-of-nuclear-reactors.html

I think this is a crazy idea.

The limiting component in each plant is often the reactor vessel, which is subject to neutron embrittlement. Once its design margin has been eroded, it cannot be restored. And replacing the reactor vessel is cost prohibitive.

For the engineers now to essentially say "the plants won't continue to meet their original design basis, but we'll monitor for leaks instead" is nutty. That's asking for a disaster to happen.

Clearly, no one has planned ahead for the nation's electricity needs. With nuclear plants eventually going offline and not being replaced and with a heavy focus on also shutting down our coal-fired plants, the US is racing toward a situation in which there won't be enough electricity to go around.

And with the cowards we have for politicians, I don't expect the shortfall to be resolved any time soon.