French president Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday promised a "new industrial revolution" fueled by nuclear power. The rhetoric is no doubt a little overheated, but reflects the French recognition that fossil fuels are not the future:

France — the country most reliant on nuclear power — has been constructing its first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on the Normandy coast, and it is expected to go into service in 2012.

EPR reactors are meant eventually to replace the aging reactors around the world whose designs date from decades ago. The Normandy site is one of only two EPRs in the world currently under construction; the other is in Finland.

France is an interesting case as the world's most nuclear-power dependent country. Lacking ample coal or natural gas deposits, it really has no choice other than nukes to generate lots of electricity.

Here in the U.S., we've gone the natural gas-coal route because we have lots of both, which makes nuclear power a less attractive option economically right now. That will change if we impose some sort of carbon tax or cap-and-trade mechanism to put a price on carbon emissions.

What do you think? Should the United States do what France is doing and expand its nuclear power production capability?

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