The nuclear industry will clinch a multi-billion pound lifeline from South Korea this week alongside a government rescue deal.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) is expected to say it will join the beleaguered consortium behind Europe’s largest new nuclear plant at Moorside in Cumbria to help prop up the £15bn project. The early agreement will kick-start the process of securing final approvals from nuclear regulators and company bosses before a final decision is made early next year.

The Nugeneration consortium was plunged into chaos this summer as Toshiba, the project’s lead developer, faced financial ruin due to its troubled Westinghouse nuclear business which had planned to build the Moorside reactor. It was then left scrambling to find new project partners as French energy giant Engie abandoned Nugen after Westinghouse crashed into bankruptcy proceedings in the US.

Alongside the injection of Korean capital into the UK, Business Secretary Greg Clark is expected to underline government support for the sector in a flurry of pledges. Industry sources said it would be the Government’s “most ambitious and complex sector deal” undertaken to date.

The lifeline comes shortly after Mr Clark held talks with South Korea’s trade minister last month in which the pair signed a memorandum to strengthen plans to collaborate on new nuclear projects. The agreement was kept under wraps ahead of this week’s package of policies which will form the building blocks of a landmark sector deal for the industry in 2018.