It's terribly ironic that our digital, wireless economy is powered by dirty, ancient fuels. For all of mankind's impressive achievements, we still rely on the burning of fossilized biomatter to facilitate our existence, just like our prehistoric predecessors.

Companies involved in the production and transportation of crude oil, natural gas, coal and their derivatives continue to see great success. And while we currently rely heavily on these resources, a combination of increasing scarcity and rising environmental costs has created new opportunities in an energy source thought to have gone extinct 20 years ago: nuclear fission.

Once considered a power-generating pariah, nuclear power plants are enjoying a resurrection of sorts. Many, including environmentalists, are beginning to believe that nuclear energy offers the best hope of weaning humanity of its reliance on fossil fuels. It is relatively clean. The technology behind it is well-proven. And probably most importantly, it is more economical than other alternative energy sources.

After Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl, Americans largely lost their appetite for nuclear-generated electricity. Given our country's endowment of coal and natural gas, we could afford to be choosy. Countries like France, on the other hand, had no choice but to develop their nuclear power industry, which is now responsible for nearly 80% of that county's electricity. The move paid off, as the French now enjoy cheap energy and the cleanest air of any industrialized nation.

Other countries are looking to replicate this success. India and China, hoping to tame oppressive air pollution while maintaining growth, are enthusiastically constructing new nuclear power plants. Turkey and Vietnam are thinking about developing nuclear power programs, while South Africa and Argentina plan to expand existing ones. Australia's prime minister thinks nuclear power is "inevitable," and Britain is encouraging the construction of new nuclear plants by easing regulatory burdens. Worldwide, some 31 reactors are under construction.

In addition to these new reactors, there are already 439 reactors around the globe currently generating 15% of the world's electricity. According to Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency's chief economist, the total generating capacity of the world's nuclear power plants will grow from roughly 370 gigawatts to 520 gigawatts by 2030. If a price gets put on carbon dioxide emissions, "it could grow even faster."

Given all this, the United States looks ready to return to the nuclear power arena in a big way. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected to receive 12 applications for new nuke-powered reactors over the coming months. Another 15 are expected next year. These applications for new plants will be the first that the NRC has received in 30 years, and they are not only being spurred by economics, but also by a recently streamlined approval process. If all are accepted, it will increase the number of nuclear reactors in the United States by one-third -- but will increase power capacity even more so, since newer reactors are much more efficient.