Ambassador Linton Brooks who served as the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration [under Bush] — the agency responsible for maintaining the US nuclear arsenal — called out Corker in his home state last week. When Brooks was asked to respond to Corker's assertion that the new facility would cost a total of $4-5 billion, not the $1.4 — 3.5 billion that has been projected, he noted:

I don't think we know that… We have no idea where that (dollar estimate) is coming from.