1,000 servicemen exposed to radiation in South Pacific and Australia during 1950s claim for cancer and other illnesses. Military veterans who claim they were negligently exposed to excessive radiation during nuclear tests in the 1950s won a high court case today permitting them to sue the Ministry of Defence, exposing the government to a potential compensation bill running into hundreds of millions of pounds. A group of around 1,000 veterans of tests in the South Pacific and Australia between 1952 and 1958 launched the case as they believe radiation exposure caused illnesses including cancer and chromosome damage.

By Peter Walker for The Guardian

The MoD argued that the group had waited too long to lodge its claim and was thus excluded under limitations regulations. It also argued that the cases were certain to fail at any eventual trial. But giving his verdict in the high court in London today, Mr Justice Foskett rejected these arguments, pointing to a recent scientific study involving veterans in New Zealand which provided new evidence of the potential health impact of the tests, which would be "crucial and pivotal" for any potential case against the MoD.

Five of the 10 lead cases he had considered were thus permitted, while the other five should be allowed to proceed as well on grounds of fairness, the judge said, delivering a 217-page judgment. The judge urged ministers to consider a settlement rather than drag out legal proceedings further. The judgment was witnessed by dozens of veterans and their relatives, who immediately decamped to the front steps of the high court building in central London to celebrate, cheering and spraying champagne.

"I'm absolutely over the moon," said Don James, who was deployed on Christmas island, a remote Pacific atoll also known as Kiritimati, during five offshore nuclear tests in 1958. "We had no special kit. They just told us to turn your back to the blast and cover your eyes. You could see the bones in your fingers," he said. "I have a blood disorder now, and so does my daughter. I'm still very angry. It should not have come to this. If they had owned up at the beginning they could have released documents and let us understand what happened."

Neil Sampson from Rosenblatt, the firm of solicitors which led the case, said he was "appalled, if not disgusted" with the way the government had allowed the issue of compensation to drag on, and the way the MoD fought the case. "Prime minister after prime minister over the past 50 years have said that if veterans could prove that they had been exposed to radiation they would be compensated," he said. "When we could prove that they had been exposed to radiation the MoD says, 'Sorry guys, you're too late.' That's disingenuous. It's not right. It's appalling." He accused ministers of wanting to delay the case so long that all the claimants would be dead: "There is no other conclusion that one could reach."

With 59 of the veterans involved having died since the action began, Sampson said, he was hopeful the MoD would now reach a settlement with the surviving veterans, a process which would take a matter of months. A full trial would take three years even to prepare, he estimated. In total, around 25,000 forces members from the UK, Australia and New Zealand were stationed near nuclear blasts, the first of which took place on the Monte Bello islands off north-west Australia in 1952. Subsequent tests were at Maralinga, a desert region of mainland South Australia, and Christmas island.

While New Zealand, along with the US, France and Canada, has previously paid money to service personnel involved in nuclear tests, the MoD has always insisted that there is no evidence its troops were exposed to excessive radiation.