The cost of decommissioning and cleaning up the nuclear site at Sellafield has increased by £5 billion to £53 billion, a new report has revealed.

The National Audit Office said that between 2010-11 and 2013-14 the nuclear provision for the site in Cumbria increased by more than £15 billion, mainly from higher estimates of the cost of work required to complete decommissioning and clean up.

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, commented: “Despite my committee’s calls in February 2014 for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to make big improvements, the cost of cleaning up the nuclear waste at Sellafield continues to soar and has risen by an astonishing £5 billion to £53 billion in February 2015, from £48 billion on 31 March 2014.

“The authority’s work at Sellafield is not just costing more, it is also taking much longer than planned and, for 2014-15, it looks like work will be behind schedule for the fourth year running.”