Cumbrian business leaders are confident that the county’s proposed nuclear new build will go ahead, despite the speculation over Toshiba’s involvement.

They do have worries, though, about delays to the project.

Rob Johnston, the chief executive of the county’s chamber of commerce, pointed out that the situation was difficult.

“Toshiba has got huge financial difficulties,” he said.

“We are extremely concerned because they (Toshiba) are the 60 per cent stakeholder. But NuGen were never talking about a bilateral funding agreement with just Toshiba and ENERGIE (the French company with a 40 per cent stake in NuGen), they were always keen on insisting that other investors might come on board.”

Last year there were reports, which have never been confirmed, that Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) was planning to invest in Moorside. Mr Johnston claimed that the firm’s executives had meetings with Greg Clark, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who is in charge of nuclear policy, in South Korea last month.

He said: “Kepco could be the saviour of the project.”, though he added that Moorside had been planned around AP1000 reactors, produced by Toshiba’s subsidiary firm Westinghouse. If the Korean firm wanted to use a different design, it would add significant delays to the project.

Ivan Baldwin, chairman of Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster, said: “The business cluster’s membership is keen to see new build going ahead as well as the ongoing decommissioning work at Sellafield. Even without confirmation or approval of the project at Moorside, the NuGen team has already been an active member of the cluster, supporting our activities and communicating with our members at every stage.

“Whatever discussions are ongoing at present, we have to anticipate a growing demand for skills and technology and be investing for the future.

“Nothing is certain in business and Toshiba’s current financial challenges add to the particular uncertainty at the moment, however, we’re confident that a new build nuclear plant in Cumbria, with all the nuclear expertise that is already here, is likely to be high on the list of future priorities for any investor.”

Martin Lewis, of Forth Engineering at Flimby, said: “We are always looking to diversify into new sectors – new build being one of them.

“Moorside would hopefully lead to more work for us which would mean more jobs and growth in the area.”