ABSTRACT
In May, 1986, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental organization, signed a novel agreement with the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Under this agreement, each organization would send scientists to the territory of the other organization's country to install and operate sophisticated seismic monitoring equipment near the host country's primary site for nuclear weapons testing. The NRDC has the largest staff of lawyers and scientists of any American environmental organization. The Council is perhaps best known for its work on issues of air and water pollution and preservation of public resources, but since the early 1970s, the organization has been involved in several environmental aspects of nuclear energy. The United States government had to respond to NRDC requests for export licenses, travel visas, and permits to set up stations on federal land near the Nevada Test Site.
