Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Update for Kansas City Plant 

Special Exposure Cohort Petition

Peter Darnell, CHP, RRPT

Kansas City Plant Lead Health Physicist

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

November 2015

Oakland, CA
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Acronyms

Bq: Becquerel

DB: database

D&D: Deconstruction and demolition

DU: Depleted uranium

mrem: milli-rem

N/P: neutron/proton

NTA: Neutron Track

pCi/m3: pico-curies/cubic meter

μCi/ml: micro-curies/milli-liter

V&V: Validation and verification
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Petition Overview

 Received Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) 

petition on March 12, 2013

 Petitioner-requested class:

All employees who worked at the 

Bannister Federal Complex from 1949

 Qualified for evaluation July 1, 2013
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Class evaluated by NIOSH

 All employees who worked in any area of 

the Kansas City Plant (KCP) from January 1, 

1949 through December 31, 1993
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Petition history

 Basis for evaluation

 On January 7, 2014, NIOSH completed 

petition evaluation report (ER) 

 Petition report findings first presented to 

the Advisory Board on Radiation and 

Worker Health (Advisory Board) on January 

28, 2014
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Radiological projects over time

 Natural Uranium Operations - May 1, 

1950 through February 28, 1955 

 Post Natural Uranium Operations Period -

March 1, 1955 to August 11, 1959 and 

January 1, 1978 through May 31, 1984

 D&D - June 1, 1984 through September 3, 

1986 

 Nickel 63 Operations - 1959-1975
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Radiological projects over time

 Tritium Water Operations (tritium 

monitors) – 1959-1975

 Magnesium Thorium Operations -

08/23/1961-03/31/1963 and 

08/28/1970-12/31/1977

 Organically Bound Tritium Operations (hilo switch plates) – 1963-1968
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Work group meetings

 Work Group (WG) met

• October 26, 2015

• July 16-17, 2015

• January 20, 2015

• June 10, 2014

 Worker outreach meetings in 2004, 2005 

and 2009

 SEC workshop meetings in 2008, 2009
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Work group Follow-up Activities

 Completed extensive database, internet 

searches and site visits

 2,032 individual references added to the 

Site Research Database (SRDB)

 KCP records included personal monitoring, 

area monitoring, industrial processes, and 

radiation source materials
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Work group actions, interviews

 7 data capture visits between December 

2012 and March 2015

 56 personnel - including several interviews 

with same person and 7 interviews for the 

Technical Basis Document (TBD) from 

December 2012 and March 2015

 1 special interview for petitioner at July 

work group meeting
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Work Group Issues

 Original KCP ER review identified 19 issues

 20th issue added after records reviews indicated 

KCP worked on 2 tritium projects

 Closed Issues: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 

18, 19; 20

 Issues moved to the site profile review: 2, 3, 10, 13

 Issues 1 and 9 pending WG action (NIOSH provided 

V&V of the DB used for the coworker model)
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

DB and V&V

 KCP first created an electronic DB to facilitate 

their access to dosimetry information in 2001

 KCP provided extracted information from the DB 

to NIOSH in 2004 and the entire DB in 2012

 NIOSH used the data to develop a coworker 

model in 2006 in the KCP Site Profile

 ER uses coworker model to bound some doses

 Internal and external dosimetry data 1950 to 

2010
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

DB V&V - continued

 15,000-plus lines each containing between one and 

five individual records

 The V&V extracts raw data from NOCTS dose 

records and compares them to the DB 

 Each record is the sum of the individual monitoring 

results collected throughout a given year

 NOCTS contains 223 claims with external and 95 

claims with internal dosimetry records

 V&V compiles 5878 lines of data
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

DB V&V - Internal

 The V&V compares annual sums of 173 NOCTS 

records with DB annual totals - 162 (94%) agreed

 Internal V&V discrepancies: 

 9 instances of an actual zero value recorded in 

NOCTS or the DB and the other is blank

 The DB lists 4.55 and NOCTS lists 4.5

 DB lists 9.5 μg entered in DB; NOCTS blank

 10 U in U entries unverified due to legibility -

NIOSH has requested a cleaner copy from KCP
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

DB V&V - External

 The V&V compared annual sums of 1502 NOCTS 

records to the DB annual totals - 1462 (97%) agree

 External V&V discrepancies noted:

 27 actual zero values recorded in NOCTS or the DB 

and the other is blank

 15 NOCTS records with an M value and DB is blank

 13 discrepancies with a >0 mrem exposure 

difference (12 with exposure difference <70mrem; 

1 with note of “light leak on film”)
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

DB V&V - continued

 NIOSH classified 8 additional entries as unverified 

due to legibility - NIOSH has requested a cleaner 

copy from KCP

 NIOSH determined that KCP accurately 

transferred dosimetry information from raw 

exposure records into an electronic format. The 

electronic DB used by NIOSH to develop a 

coworker model is sufficiently accurate.
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

NIOSH approach to data findings

 NIOSH determined that the available monitoring 

records, process descriptions and source-term 

data are sufficiently accurate to complete dose 

reconstructions

 External dose is bounded using the TBD coworker 

dose model 

 Depleted uranium operations are bounded using 

ORAUT-TBD-0031 methodologies
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Feasibility - Natural Uranium

 5/1/1950 to 2/281955 – TBD-6000 

 Post Operations 3/1/1955 to 8/11/1959 –

Bounding scenario: maximum gross-alpha air 

sample – 49 pCi/m3

 Post Operations 1/1/1978 to 3/31/1984 –

Bounding scenario: DU and D&D operations 

maximum surface contamination; ORAUT-OTIB0070 to model doses

 TBD-6000 for workers with less exposure 

potential than machine operators
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Feasibility – Various Operations

 D&D Operations 6/1/1984 through 9/3/1986 –

NIOSH will use Rockwell dosimetry data

 Nickel 63 Operations 1959-1975 – Committed 

dose to all organs is <1 mrem; no dose assigned

 Tritium Operations 1959-1975 – Bounding 

scenario: 400 mL bottle of tritiated water spilled 

over a work year and absorbed by a worker. ICRP 

68 dose conversion factor is 1.8E-9 rem/Bq. 6.66 

mrem/year worker dose applied to all workers.
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Feasibility – Various Operations

 Mg-Th Operations 08/23/1961-03/31/1963 and 

08/28/1970-12/31/1977 – Bounding limit 3E-11 

μCi/ml. OCAS-TIB-009 ingestion rate. TBD-6000 

methodology for worker classes with less 

exposure potential than machine operators. 

 Tritium Operations 1963-1968 – Bounding 

scenario: surface contamination transferred to 

skin and absorbed. ICRP 68 dose conversion 

factor is 4.19E-9 rem/Bq. 1.77 mrem/year dose 

applied to all workers.
Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Feasibility Summary

January 1, 1949 through December 31, 1993

Source of Exposure Feasible Not Feasible

External X

Internal X