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The UK government鈥檚 nuclear new build ambitions have been branded 鈥減ie in the sky鈥� by an international energy expert, as Toshiba announced this week that it will not take a construction role on its proposed 拢106bn Moorside plant in Cumbria.

According to reports this week, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is pushing the Treasury to help with building the costly nuclear power plants by taking stakes in the projects.

Taking minority stakes, worth up to 30%, would mean the construction cost of the power stations would not show up on the government鈥檚 balance sheet.

But Mycle Schneider, who has advised a number of European governments on nuclear issues, said the cash-strapped UK government would not be able to offer the level of capital support required to deliver the planned fleet of new atomic power plants. Hinkley alone has an estimated construction cost of 拢18bn.

He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear that the public subsidy would be very limited. We are talking about very large sums of money. This is pie in the sky. If the government comes up with a few billion pounds, it will not be enough to fill the gap.鈥�

Schneider said the government should put its efforts instead into encouraging renewable energy, which is delivering increasing levels of generation capacity.

His comments follow Toshiba鈥檚 announcement on Tuesday that it has delayed the publication of its quarterly earnings report. Toshiba said it still plans to be involved in Moorside without 鈥渃arrying out actual construction work鈥�.

The company has admitted that it will have to write off losses of $6bn resulting from mammoth cost over-runs on two atomic plants in the US being built by its nuclear construction arm Westinghouse. The troubled plants use the same AP1000 model reactors that Toshiba plans to use at Moorside. It has a 60% stake in the scheme.