II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 729 

To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the course 

of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2007 

Mr. SALAZAR introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the course of employment at the Rocky Flats 

site in Colorado. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rocky Flats Special 

5 Exposure Cohort Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find8 ings: 

9 (1) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

10 Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 


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1 7384 et seq.) (referred to in this section as the 

2 ‘‘Act’’) was enacted to ensure fairness and equity for 

3 the civilian men and women who, during the past 50 

4 years, performed duties uniquely related to the nu5 clear weapons production and testing programs of 

6 the Department of Energy and its predecessor agen7 cies by establishing a program that would provide ef8 ficient, uniform, and adequate compensation for be9 ryllium-related health conditions and radiation-re10 lated health conditions. 

11 (2) The Act provides a process for consideration 

12 of claims for compensation by individuals who were 

13 employed at relevant times at various locations, but 

14 also includes provisions designating employees at 

15 certain other locations as members of a Special Ex16 posure Cohort whose claims are subject to a less-de17 tailed administrative process. 

18 (3) The Act also authorizes the President, upon 

19 recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation 

20 and Worker Health, to designate additional classes 

21 of employees at Department of Energy facilities as 

22 members of the Special Exposure Cohort if the 

23 President determines that— 


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1 (A) it is not feasible to estimate with suffi2 cient accuracy the radiation dose that the class 

3 received; and 

4 (B) there is a reasonable likelihood that 

5 the radiation dose may have endangered the 

6 health of members of the class. 

7 (4) It has become evident that it is not feasible 

8 to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation 

9 dose received by employees at the Department of 

10 Energy facility in Colorado known as the Rocky 

11 Flats site for the following reasons: 

12 (A) Many worker exposures were 

13 unmonitored or were not monitored adequately 

14 over the lifetime of the plant at the Rocky Flats 

15 site. Even in 2004, a former worker from the 

16 1950s agreed to be scanned under the former 

17 radiation worker program of the Department of 

18 Energy and was found to have a significant in19 ternal deposition of radiation that had been un20 detected and unrecorded for more than 50 

21 years. 

22 (B) No lung counter for detecting and 

23 measuring plutonium and americium in the 

24 lungs existed at Rocky Flats until the late 

25 1960s. Without this equipment, the very insolVerDate Aug 31 2005 19:17 Mar 03, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S729.IS S729

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1 uble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be de2 tected, and a large number of workers had in3 halation exposures that went undetected and 

4 unmeasured. 

5 (C) Exposure to neutron radiation was not 

6 monitored at the Rocky Flats site until the late 

7 1950s, and most of those measurements 

8 through 1970 have been found to be in error. 

9 In some areas of the plant at the site, the neu10 tron doses were as much as 2 to 10 times as 

11 great as the gamma doses received by workers, 

12 but only gamma doses were recorded. 

13 (D) Radiation exposures of many workers 

14 at the Rocky Flats site were not measured (and 

15 in some cases estimated doses were assigned), 

16 while some records have been destroyed or lost. 

17 As a result, the exposure histories and other 

18 data available are not adequate to determine 

19 properly whether Rocky Flats workers qualify 

20 for compensation under the Act. 

21 (E) The model that has been used for dose 

22 reconstruction by the National Institute for Oc23 cupational Safety and Health (referred to in 

24 this section as the ‘‘Institute’’) in determining 

25 whether Rocky Flats workers qualify for comVerDate Aug 31 2005 19:17 Mar 03, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S729.IS S729

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1 pensation under the Act is in error. The default 

2 values used for particle size and solubility of 

3 the internally deposited plutonium in workers 

4 are in error. Use of these erroneous values to 

5 calculate internal doses for claimants can result 

6 in dose calculations of as much as 3 to 10 times 

7 below what the Rocky Flats records and au8 topsy data indicate. 

9 (5) The administrative costs related to Rocky 

10 Flats claims have been disproportionately high rel11 ative to the number of claims that have been proc12 essed. 

13 (6) Some Rocky Flats workers, despite having 

14 worked with tons of plutonium and having known 

15 exposures leading to serious health effects, have 

16 been denied compensation under the Act as a result 

17 of potentially flawed calculations based on records 

18 that are incomplete or in error, as well as the use 

19 of incorrect models. 

20 (7) Achieving the purposes of the Act with re21 spect to workers at Rocky Flats is more likely to be 

22 achieved if claims by those workers are subject to 

23 the administrative procedures applicable to members 

24 of the Special Exposure Cohort. 


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1 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to revise 

2 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 

3 Program Act of 2000 to include certain Rocky Flats work4 ers as members of the Special Exposure Cohort. 

5 SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF SPECIAL EXPOSURE 

6 COHORT. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3621(14) of the Energy 

8 Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 

9 Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)) is amended by adding 

10 at the end the following new subparagraph: 

11 ‘‘(D) The employee was so employed for a 

12 number of work days aggregating at least 250 

13 work days before January 1, 2006, by the De14 partment of Energy or a Department of Energy 

15 contractor or subcontractor at the Rocky Flats 

16 site in Colorado.’’. 

17 (b) AUTHORITY TO REAPPLY.—A claim that an indi18 vidual qualifies, by reason of section 3621(14)(D) of the 

19 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 

20 Program Act of 2000, as added by subsection (a), for com21 pensation or benefits under such Act shall be considered 

22 for compensation or benefits notwithstanding any denial 

23 of any other claim for compensation with respect to such 

24 individual. 

Æ 


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