Pacific atomic test survivors cannot sue Ministry of Defence The mushroom cloud of the British H-bomb during a test at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Photograph: Popperfoto Survivors of Britain's 1950s atomic tests in the Pacific who claim they suffered ill-health through exposure to radiation have been prevented from suing the Ministry of Defence. By the narrowest of margins - four justices to three - the supreme court ruled that their action should be time-barred because it had been brought too late. Although the judgment relates to nine test cases, lawyers for the veterans say they will soon lodge compensation claims on behalf of hundreds of others in the high court involving those who were more recently diagnosed with illnesses. Dismissing the nine test cases, Lord Justice Wilson said: "It must be bad enough for the nine veterans together ... to learn that they have lost their final round but to learn that they lost by the narrowest of margins must make it even worse." One of the nine veterans died last weekend. The majority of justices found that the former servicemen had been aware of their illnesses since they formed a campaign group to press for compensation in the 1980s. Under the Limitation Act 1980, the judges said, their cases should have been brought within three years. The Ministry of Defence has always denied liability for the veterans' condition. The cases, Wilson added, "rest on a false hope and should be brought to an end now and not later." The veterans had contended that they did not have proper knowledge that their illnesses were connected to the atomic tests until medical research was published in 2007. Wendy Brothers, 73, a veteran's widow, said outside the court: "I'm very disappointed. The MoD say that we have known about it for too long but they continue to say that nothing happened. Rose Clark, 71, whose husband, Michael, died of bone and lung cancer in 1992, said the case had not been about "money but getting official acknowledgement that the men had been put at risk." She added: "I lost my oldest grandson at the age of eight through leukaemia. I believe it was due to genetic damage. Michael was 19 at the time he was on Christmas Island and witnessed five atomic bombs. He said he was so close he could see the bones of the people on the beach beside him. It was like an x-ray, he said. The army simply told him to turn away when the explosion occurred. The UK carried out 21 thermonuclear tests in Australia and the Pacific between 1952 and 1958.