Dropping enough hints to cajole India on the path to the civilian nuclear deal, United States Ambassador David Mulford on Thursday said that the world was on the verge of a nuclear renaissance, as the area had huge potential.

Pitching for 'clean, efficient, safe energy thath is very competitively priced', he said countries were entering into bilateral agreements and cited the recent US-Russia pact as an example.

"Well, I think we do," Mulford said when asked whether he saw a nuclear rennaissance taking place in the near future.

Pointing out that China and Russia [Images] are making rapid strides in the atomic field, he told reporters that the nuclear energy sector has huge potential at the moment.

"The US recently reached a 123 agreement with Russia to come together and work together in the civil nuclear area," he said.

India and the US also have concluded a 123 agreement but it is yet to be signed because of stiff resistance from the Left allies of the United Progressive Alliance government.

The US envoy, who played a key role in negotiating the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, said a spurt has been witnessed in applications to Washington, for licenses to build new nuclear reactors and upgrade the existing ones.

"After many years of no new reactors, there is a considerable interest in new licenses in the past couple of years," he said.

Mulford said that the renewed interest in nuclear power was a result of good experience the Americans had over the last 30 years with 'clean, efficient, safe energy'.