Nuclear power is something that is both a solution to many problems and a problem in itself. Hailed as a way to generate power and provide our homes with electricity without the need to burn fossil fuels, it is also something that can be dangerous and of course at some point will need to be decommissioned.
Decommissioning a power station means taking it down and removing all of the facilities as well as the dangerous substances within it, so that it can then be used in the future for something else. As you can imagine, doing this is not an easy thing to do, and there are many challenges involved when it comes to decommissioning a nuclear power station.
Dismantling a power station that has high levels of radiation in certain places is something that is not safe to be done by humans. Fortunately, there are many modern inventions like these machines created by Bristol Robotics company https://hotrobotics.co.uk/facilities/university-of-bristol/ that are able to work in these highly radioactive areas and do this job for us.
The radioactive materials and waste then also need to be stored safely. It takes a long time for this waste to decay and no longer stay hazardous to humans so secure storage facilities need to be built in order to keep it from damaging humans or the environment. In the UK, we have Sellafield, a facility which specialises in dealing with this dangerous nuclear waste.