Ireland has failed to persuade its European neighbours to formally support the campaign to end reprocessing at the Sellafield nuclear facility at a vital ministerial meeting later this month.
A statement drafted for ministers attending the Ospar Convention (for the protection of the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic) in Bremen makes no mention of alternatives to nuclear reprocessing, such as underground storage.
Only Norway and Denmark have supported Ireland's call for further measures to reduce radioactive discharges, over and above the national plans agreed at the last Ospar ministerial meeting five years ago.
This is in spite of the fact that discharges from Sellafield have been rising, rather than falling as promised, in recent years.
The three countries also call for a moratorium on discharges of Technetium, one of the most toxic radioactive pollutants from Sellafield, although the draft statement makes no direct reference to the Cumbrian reprocessing plant.
It is uncertain that these calls by just three of the 16 signatories to Ospar will even make it to the final declaration. Five years ago, member states, including the nuclear reprocessing countries Britain and France, agreed unanimously to reduced radioactive emissions into the sea to "close to zero" by 2020.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, last week wrote to the British authorities about reports that the dumping of Technetium was to increase over the next four years.
The document is likely to disappoint environmental campaigners, who have been pressing the Government to take a more forceful stand against Sellafield. While the Irish authorities have taken a number of legal actions against the plant, these have proved slow-moving and, to date, largely unsuccessful.
In the first case, the Government is awaiting the result of a challenge it took under the Ospar Convention at an arbitration court hearing in The Hague last year. Ireland is seeking access to reports commissioned by the British government on the economic and environmental aspects of the Mox plant at Sellafield. Britain refused to release the information, citing commercial and security reasons.
The result was due earlier this year but is now expected to be published in the next few months.
Next week, the Government begins another international legal case against Sellafield, this time under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, and senior officials will attend for the opening of Ireland's case at the tribunal
Two years ago, Ireland lost an initial case under the UN Convention to stop the Mox plant going ahead.
A tribunal ruled that the situation was not sufficiently "urgent".
Mr Cullen last week described the two cases as "among the most significant legal actions ever taken by Ireland".
Britain has conceded that discharges into the Irish Sea have increased, but says this is because older nuclear plants are being taken out of service. It has pledged to meet its commitments to cut emissions to "close to zero" by 2020.
