The engineering group, owned by Japan’s Toshiba, yesterday confirmed it had bought a controlling stake in the NuGen project to build a 3.5GW power station.

The NuGen project had been a joint venture been Spain’s Iberdrola and French firm GDF Suez. Toshiba bought out Iberdrola in December and yesterday bought an extra 10% stake from GDF.

The agreement provides that three Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors capable of generating 3.4GW will be built at the Moorside site.

Westinghouse said the deal is expected to significantly boost local, regional and national economies, with a large portion of the project open to the UK supply chain.

Westinghouse President and CEO Danny Roderick said: “This is another example of the strong commitment of Toshiba and Westinghouse to serve the global nuclear energy industry and enable countries and regions of the world to achieve their carbon-reduction goals.

“We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the owners of NuGen, as well as nuclear suppliers in Cumbria and throughout the United Kingdom.”

Toshiba’s involvement through Westinghouse marks the entry of the second Japanese engineering heavyweight into Britain’s drive to build new nuclear plants after Hitachi bought into Horizon Nuclear Power in 2012.

Horizon aims to build new nuclear power stations at Wylfa on Anglesey and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire, using Hitachi BWR reactors.

Getting a foothold in the UK is important to US-based Westinghouse, which sees it as a steppingstone to growing its reactor business in Europe and elsewhere after the US turned its back on new nuclear plants following the shale gas boom.

The first unit is expected to be online in 2024. When fully operational, the site is expected to deliver 7% of the UK’s electricity.

Construction of the units will create thousands of skilled jobs over the next decade.