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The DoD, the nation's biggest polluter, is now cleaning up 29,500 currently or formerly contaminated sites in every state and territory. California alone has 3,912 contaminated sites on 441 current and former DoD installations. Many of DoD's facilities have already contaminated groundwater sources of drinking water.... The cost to clean up toxic munitions contamination and unexploded ordnance at active and former military installations around the country may reach $200 billion." - The National Resources Defense Council, April 21, 2004.

With all of the brouhaha following Defense Secretary Gates' announcement yesterday to scale back on wasteful defense programs, it has not yet been mentioned that Gates also announced an additional budget request of $700 million for "nuclear surety." Surety means making sure nuclear weapons cannot be used by those who did not create them and may have stolen them. But there is much debate over whether or not we even have a surety problem--we've spoken with several insiders who say there isn't one. While the new funding came up during the Q & A at yesterday's Pentagon press conference as it related to nuclear stewardship across the DOD enterprise based on the non-specific recommendations of the Schlesinger task force's report, it's not exactly clear what DoD will use these funds for.

I'd been trying unsuccessfully, in recent weeks, to catch up with Congressman Zach Wamp to see what he thought of the Obama administration's apparent push to move the Nuclear Weapons Complex out of the Dept.of Energy and over to the Dept. of Defense. Few members of Congress are more intimately knowledgeable of the nuclear weapons program than Wamp, and he's been a big supporter, in part because of the Y-12 warhead plant in his home district. On Friday, at an event at Y-12's New Hope Center, I had a few minutes to talk with Wamp, and I asked him for his position on relocating the weapons program to DOD. "Well, that is the $64,000 question right now," he said.

DoD Press Briefing with the Secretary's Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management BRYAN WHITMAN (deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Public Affairs): Well, good morning. And let me just go ahead and do a brief introduction here. I think that most of you were here in September for the initial work of the task force, but I'm pleased today to have with us the members of the secretary of Defense's Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management. It was in June that Secretary Gates appointed the task force to recommend improvements and measures to enhance deterrence and international confidence in U.S. nuclear -- in the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The task force was appointed as a subcommittee of the Defense Policy Board and chaired by Dr. James Schlesinger here.

John Fleck at the Albuqeurque Journal's blog noted an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that says that switching over control of national labs to the Department of Defense could have an adverse effect on the caliber of scientists who could be brought in to the labs for their research. Some experts who have studied or worked with the labs fear that change could reduce the quality of research. "They've already made it much harder for themselves to attract good people," said Hugh Gusterson, a professor of anthropology and sociology at George Mason University who has spent years studying the culture of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, talking about the management changes. A further shift, he said, "will just compound the difficulty."

Well, it appears that one of the first things the Obama-Biden Office of Management and Budget has done is to instruct the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to jointly "assess the costs and benefits of transferring budget and management" of our nuclear weapons research, development, test and production programs and associated facilities from DOE to DOD, "beginning in FY 2011." Under the terms of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, the responsibilities for all aspects of our nuclear energy related programs - not just nuclear weapons related - were invested in a civilian agency, the Atomic Energy Commission.

To provide our service members and their families the benefits they deserve, and to ensure our military is equipped and in a proper state of readiness to deal with 21st century challenges, Congressman Joe Sestak (PA - 07) supported the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved by the House Armed Services Committee. In total, HR 2647 authorizes $550.4 billion in budget authority for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the national security programs of the Department of Energy. In the bill approved by the committee, the Congressman authored nine amendments to deal with specific areas in which the military must improve to keep our nation safe and offer the men and women who wear the cloth of this nation - and their families - the care they deserve.

"The budget request for Oak Ridge National laboratory is about $1.65 billion, based on what I'm told by lab officials and seeing in budget info released by the administration. The actual budget request for ORNL is about $1.18 billion, but once you add the work for other agencies, such as NOAA and DOD, etc., the total budget is expected to be about $1.65 billion. Energy and nonproliferation are key areas. I'm still working to get information on Y-12. I'm told there is a full allotment in place for the Uranium Processing Facility, perhaps in the range of $130 million, but I haven't found any documents that say that -- at least not yet. NNSA chief Tom D'Agostino is supposed to have a media briefing at 4 p.m."

"The Obama administration is expected tomorrow to release its Nuclear Posture Review, which has been in preparation for a year. The review will set the direction of U.S. nuclear weapons policy for the next five to 10 years, laying out the purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons, the number of nuclear weapons needed to fulfill that purpose, and plans for how to maintain them in the future. The review was developed through an interagency process headed by the Department of Defense (DOD) and approved by President Obama. Nonetheless, it will only serve as a guide. Actual policy will be set by presidential orders and directives, congressional budget decisions, and other steps over the coming months."

Whistleblowers have the potential to right a lot of wrongs, but if no one protects them against backlashes they are likely to repress the urge to speak up. That is why most workplaces have adopted policies that protect whistleblowers from reprisals, such as harassment or entries in their personnel files that could harm their careers.

Military whistle-blowers might want to save their breath. The Pentagon inspector general, the internal watchdog for the Defense Department, hardly ever sides with service members who complain that they were punished for reporting wrongdoing, according to a review of cases by The Associated Press. The inspector general's office rejected claims of retaliation and stood by the military in more than 90 percent of nearly 3,000 cases during the past six years. More than 73 percent were closed after only a preliminary review that relied on available documents and sources - often from the military itself - to determine whether a full inquiry was warranted.

HILO » Forty-year-old depleted uranium devices at the Army's Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island are a hazard on base, but not a hazard to the public, Army Col. Howard Killian told the Hawaii County Council yesterday. Measurements show no radiation from depleted uranium is extending outside the nearly 109,000-acre base, and radiation inside is so low that devices made with uranium are hard to find, Killian said.

DENVER (AP) - Colorado will get $35 million to help clean up and restore a former nerve gas and chemical manufacturing site near Denver that was deemed among the most polluted in the country. Shell Oil Co., which made pesticides and other chemicals at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, will provide $21 million in cash and land under an agreement announced Thursday to settle a 25-year-old state lawsuit. The Army and federal government will provide the rest.