Ambient office = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     When he was asked about the funding after his presentation, Campbell said he was rounding up. The funding is more like four million three hundred thousand per year. However, his office is grateful for that. He noted that for the past few decades, funding was “zero.”
“We hope to grow it,” Campbell said.
     The funding will be put toward about eight technologies, including better radiological-nuclear detectors. His office can do a lot with that small amount of funding, including transitioning the DTRA projects and commercial off-the-shelf products.
     Campbell noted that “If we’re trying to solve all the problems at once, yeah, it’s not a lot of funding. But we also recognize that … it’s enough to move it in a timeline that the services can afford. If I can have everything done today, it still may take the services two or three years before they have dollars to bring something online.”
     He continued that there are radiation detector programs that have been moving at a glacial pace that his office using the funding can help speed up with the funding. “The idea is to prime the pump, show success, then make the argument that we can do more.”
     The next priority will be education.
     Campbell said that we “actually have to have tabletop exercises where we don’t stop right after the event occurs, which seems to be the theme of a lot of ones that I’ve been at: the [bomb] goes off, ‘I guess we’ll stop, the world’s going to end.’ Now comes the question: what does a commander do two minutes after an explosion? What does he do 12 hours after an explosion? What does he do 24 hours before he starts getting the supplies from the U.S. if they can get there?”
     Richard Peterson is the director of the new radiological and nuclear defense capabilities development program. This new program falls under the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Threat Reduction and Arms Control. He said that he tries to look at the problem from a “glass half full” point of view. There is renewed emphasis and discussions at highest levels in the Office of the Secretary of Defense about the problem of whether U.S. forces can fight through a nuclear war.
     Peterson added that “A few years ago, we wouldn’t have seen this kind of verbiage in the high-level strategy documents. So, I’m taking this as a big win, and that is a positive sign.”
     His newly formed office is an indication that the radiological-nuclear protection problem isn’t being passed around the Pentagon anymore.
     Rhetoric and doctrine from potential adversaries, however, have suggested using tactical nuclear weapons as a means for area denial.
     Peterson said, “We have to have the ability to not have aerial denial be the name of the game for the weapons. We have to make that clear to our adversaries: ‘This is not going to work. Don’t bother trying.’”
    “Survivability” is a key word, but it can’t just consist of decontaminating equipment and putting weapons back in the fight. There needs to be an emphasis on the wellbeing of personnel, he said.
     What does the commander have available to him to make the decisions to go save the lives of those who can be saved, but also advance the fight? Peterson asked.
      He added that “We do not have a medical countermeasure pipeline to be able to protect our people, and that’s a big problem. … It’s a problem we’re aiming to solve over time. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Please read Part 3 next

Ambient office = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Corn from Central Market = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 3 Parts
     The Army Science Board in September finished work on a report titled, “An Independent Assessment of the Army’s Ability to Fight and Win on a Nuclear Battlefield.”
     The conclusions of the report were not revealed to the public and are available to read only on classified networks. However, listening to a handful of government experts at a recent presentation who did have access to the report, its overall conclusions are alarming.
     Craig Campbell is the principal director in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Threat Reduction and Arms Control. He said that if a nuclear fight did break out overseas in regions such as Europe or the Indo-Pacific, it would be a terrible day for U.S. forces.
     Campbell said, “We may be able to operate in the United States, but we would not be able to operate in Eucom, Indo-Pacom or any other combatant commands. We would fail. That’s where we’re at.” He made these remarks at the spring meeting of the National Defense Industrial Association’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Division.
     He continued, “We have gaps that are much broader and gaps that span the breadth of the … environment from doctrine, operations to materiel.”
     Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly brought up the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.
     Retired Army Brig. Gen. William King IV, NDIA’s CBRN Division chair, said, “I don’t think you can pass a day in the news where you’re not listening to Russia talking about repositioning capability and potentially using new tactical nuclear weapons — or what today is called nonstrategic nuclear weapons — talking about it almost as if it’s commonplace.”
     The last two U.S. Defense Department Nuclear Posture Reviews have acknowledged the increased threat of nuclear warfare and recommended more training and readiness, but King has not seen any of that come to fruition.
     King said, “I haven’t seen that dramatic increase. In fact, my sources are telling me there have been probably less than a handful of [trainings] over the last two [Nuclear Posture Reviews]. So, we really don’t know what we don’t know.” King is also a senior fellow and principal director at Booz Allen Hamilton.”
     King added, “We’re no longer at a point of risk in this mission space. We’re actually gambling in this mission space because of a lack of knowledge and awareness, lack of education, lack of readiness and preparation.”
     The National Guard has a mandate to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear detonation or accident in the United States. It has been the lone voice in the military advocating for new equipment over the past two decades, panelists noted. However, the National Guard and its Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams are not intended to operate outside of U.S. territory.
     Campbell said U.S. soldiers overseas must have the ability to operate, survive and prevail in a radiological-nuclear environment. They must be able to protect themselves, detect and identify threats, then mitigate or provide consequence management. And this must be done all the way from the “forward leading edge” with remote sensors, overhead sensors and include reach back to the U.S. “And it has to be networked and interoperable with a multitude of systems,” Campbell added.
    In order to help achieve that, the office established a new radiological and nuclear defense capabilities development program. The new program has a budget of five million dollars a year. These funds will help transition research-and-development projects funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to the field.
Please read Part 2 next

Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Mini cucumber from Central Market = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 131 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 133 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 63 nanosieverts per hour