The World Economic Forum rightly prides itself on innovative thinking about global problems. But the solution to the challenges of energy security and cutting carbon emissions lies, I believe, in a technology celebrating its 50th anniversary.

It is 50 years since the first commercial nuclear power plants began to generate electricity. Even in the dark days of the Cold War, these reactors, in France and the U.S., were seen as vital to the world's future. They were expected to mark the beginning of a new peaceful atomic age that would help meet our energy needs.