After seven years of extensive litigation and controversy, the consideration of environmental impacts mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)¹ has become an integral part of the decisionmaking process for federal activities throughout the country. One major issue that has been the subject of some litigation but remains unsettled, however, is the international reach of NEPA. More specifically, to what extent are federal agencies required to comply with NEPA and the environmental impact statement (EIS) process² when their activities will have impacts only on the environments of foreign countries. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a memorandum³ to federal agencies last year stating that NEPA requires analysis and disclosure of the environmental impacts of all federal agencies' activities, whether domestic or foreign. In contrast, a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision⁴ limited NEPA's application to the broad global effects of international activities and found no requirement for EIS studies of site-specific impacts of particular nuclear export decisions. These contrary interpretations have brought into sharp focus a controversy that should be clarified by CEQ's soon-to-be-issued NEPA regulations⁵ that will apply to all federal agencies.