MPs, business leaders and Government officials have met to discuss Moorside.

Copeland MP Trudy Harrison set up the Moorside Strategic Partnership in the wake of Toshiba pulling the plug on its NuGen-led project to create a £15 billion new-build nuclear power station on the site next to Sellafield in November.

The forum was created to keep Moorside on the political agenda.

Mrs Harrison, and other Cumbrian MPs and council leaders, pledged to lobby the Government over Moorside and to encourage another nuclear developer to take it on.

The private meeting, on Friday, was hosted by Copeland mayor Mike Starkie. It was the second time it had met and another forum is planned for next month.

Those attending included Gavin Dobbing, of the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Workington MP Sue Hayman, Carlisle MP John Stevenson, Jo Lappin, chief executive of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and Ivan Baldwin, of Britain's Energy Coast Business Cluster.

John Woodcock, MP for Barrow and Furness, is also a forum member but could not attend the meeting.

Mrs Harrison said: "We will work collaboratively to ensure that Moorside gets over the line because it's common sense."

Mr Starkie added: "We have had reassurances from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy that they still do see Moorside as viable and as part of the future for new builds.

"As I've stated on many occasions it's the perfect site for large scale nuclear reactors and we believe that there is still interest from developers from around the world in developing this project."

Toshiba, which owned NuGen, took the decision to wind it up after failing to make sufficient progress on securing a buyer.

Toshiba announced it was taking the drastic step 18 months after it was left as the sole owner of NuGen.

The project would have created thousands of jobs during the construction and operation stage and generated around seven per cent of the UK’s energy needs.

Toshiba had previously said it wanted to offload NuGen by the end of the financial year, as it looked to divest completely from nuclear activity, but would make the decision earlier if it was not convinced a deal was achievable.

The company said the wind-up process would start by January 31 and it expected to incur losses before taxes of around £100.6 million.

Last month, a top figure at China General Nuclear Power Group described Moorside as “a very smart site”, fuelling speculation that the company could revive Cumbria’s hopes for a new nuclear power station.

Rob Davies, chief operating officer at CGN UK, revealed his admiration after being asked by in-Cumbria if the company was still interested in developing a power station in Cumbria, having missed out to Kepco as preferred bidder for original Moorside developer NuGen just over a year ago.

Revealing an ambition to build a fleet of power stations in the UK, Mr Davies told the Nuclear Industry Association Nuclear 2018 conference held in London that CGN wanted to play a role in the country’s nuclear renaissance.

“Moorside is a very smart site, it is a nice site,” he said during a question-and-answer session.

“We are currently concentrating on Bradwell B and ramping that up. We want to build a fleet of new nuclear power stations in the UK.”

Meanwhile, plans for a new nuclear power station in Wales are hanging in the balance, raising the prospect of a second failed project in the space of two months following the collapse of Moorside.

Hitachi, the Japanese company behind the new Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station project on Anglesey, could pull the plug on the £14 billion project next week, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

The company is said to be considering the potential suspension of the development because funding negotiations with the UK Government have hit an impasse.