ORAU TEAM

Dose Reconstruction

Project for NIOSH

Oak Ridge Associated Universities I Dade Moeller & Associates I MJW Corporation

Page 1 of 8

Document Title:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - 

Introduction

Document Number: ORAUT-TKBS-0035-1 

Revision: 00

Effective Date: 07/18/2005

Type of Document: TBD

Supersedes: None

Subject Expert: Jay J. Maisler

Document Owner

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 06/23/2005

Jay J. Maisler, TBD Team Leader 

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 06/23/2005

Judson L. Kenoyer, Task 3 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 06/23/2005

Richard E. Toohey, Project Director

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 07/18/2005

James W. Neton, Associate Director for Science

 New Total Rewrite Revision Page Change

DOCUMENTS MARKED AS A TOTAL REWRITE, REVISION, OR PAGE CHANGE REPLACE THE PRIOR REVISION. 

PLEASE DISCARD / DESTROY ALL COPIES OF THE PRIOR REVISION.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0035-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 07/18/2005 Page 2 of 8

PUBLICATION RECORD

EFFECTIVE 

DATE

REVISION

NUMBER DESCRIPTION

06/02/2005 00-A New technical basis document for the Lawrence Livermore National 

Laboratory – Site Profile. Initiated by Jay J. Maisler.

06/03/2005 00-B Incorporates changes resulting from internal review comments. 

Initiated by Jay J. Maisler.

06/20/2005 00-C Incorporates changes resulting for OCAS review comments. Initiated 

by Jay J. Maisler.

07/18/2005 00 First approved issue. No training required. Initiated by Jay J. 

Maisler.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0035-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 07/18/2005 Page 3 of 8

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publication Record ..............................................................................................................................2

Acronyms and Abbreviations ...............................................................................................................4

1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................................. 5

1.2 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................5

1.3 Scope .........................................................................................................................................5

1.3.1 Site Description ..................................................................................................................5

1.3.2 Occupational Medical Dose................................................................................................6

1.3.3 Occupational Environmental Dose .....................................................................................6

1.3.4 Occupational Internal Dose ................................................................................................6

1.3.5 Occupational External Dose ...............................................................................................7

References ..........................................................................................................................................8
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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

EEOICPA Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000

IMBA Integrated Modules for Bioassay Analysis

IREP Interactive RadioEpidemiological Program

LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

TBD Technical Basis Document

U.S.C. United States Code
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1.1 INTRODUCTION

Technical basis documents (TBDs) and Site Profile documents are general working documents that 

provide guidance concerning the preparation of dose reconstructions at particular sites or categories 

of sites. They will be revised when additional relevant information is obtained about the affected 

site(s). These documents may be used to assist the National Institute for Occupational Safety and 

Health (NIOSH) in the completion of the individual work required for each dose reconstruction.

In this document the word “facility” is used as a general term for an area, building, or group of 

buildings that served a specific purpose at a site. It does not necessarily connote an “atomic weapons 

employer facility” or a “Department of Energy facility” as defined in the Energy Employees 

Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA; 42 U.S.C. § 7384l (5) and (12)).

This Site Profile documents historical practices at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) 

and provides information for the evaluation of internal and external dosimetry data for unmonitored 

and monitored workers; it can serve as a supplement to, or substitute for, individual monitoring data. 

1.2 PURPOSE

This Site Profile provides technical basis information to be used to evaluate the total occupational 

radiation dose that can reasonably be associated with a worker’s radiation exposure at LLNL. This 

dose results from exposure to external and internal radiation sources in LLNL facilities, to 

occupationally required diagnostic X-ray examinations, and to onsite environmental releases. This 

Site Profile includes methods for estimating doses that may have occurred while an employee was not 

monitored or inadequately monitored, or were missed due to analytical detection limits or incomplete 

or missing monitoring records (i.e., missed dose). Over the years LLNL has implemented new and 

more reliable scientific methods and protection measures. This Site Profile identifies these methods 

and measures. 

Dose reconstructors use the NIOSH Interactive RadioEpidemiological Program (IREP) and the 

Integrated Modules for Bioassay Analysis (IMBA) computer program to evaluate radiation doses. 

Information on measurement uncertainties is an integral component of the NIOSH approach. This 

Site Profile describes how to evaluate uncertainty associated with LLNL exposure and dosimetry 

records, which is an integral component of the NIOSH approach to dose reconstruction.

1.3 SCOPE

The Site Profile consists of this Introduction and five major TBDs: Site Description, Occupational 

Medical Dose, Occupational Environmental Dose, Occupational Internal Dose, and Occupational 

External Dose.

1.3.1

The Site Description TBD (ORAU 2005a) describes major LLNL facilities and operations. LLNL was 

founded in 1952 on the site of a closed U.S. Naval Air Station. It was originally known as the 

University of California Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, and later as the Lawrence Radiation 

Laboratory at Livermore. LLNL consists of two sites, the main Laboratory site, which is a densely 

populated mile-and-a-half square area in Livermore, California, and the 11-square-mile Explosive Test 

Site near Tracy, California, which is known as Site 300.

Site Description
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In the beginning, the Laboratory’s single mission dealt with thermonuclear weapons development. 

Over the years, the mission has expanded to include diverse scientific and engineering research 

activities, but has focused primarily on research, development, and testing of the nuclear weapons life 

cycle and related tasks. 

1.3.2

The Occupational Medical Dose TBD (ORAU 2005b) provides information about the dose individual 

workers received from X-rays required as a condition of employment. Beginning in 1952, Health 

Services Department clinicians at LLNL prescribed chest X-ray examinations. From 1952 until about 

1993, baseline X-rays were required for all preemployment evaluations. Apart from the 

preemployment baseline posterior-anterior chest X-rays, LLNL apparently did not mandate routine 

examinations on a regular basis for employees. LLNL apparently introduced chest films for beryllium 

and asbestos workers in the 1980s with a frequency dependent on the age and exposure of the 

individual (Noonan 2002).

Occupational Medical Dose

ORAU (2005b) develops claimant-favorable estimates of doses from occupational medical X-rays to 

the lungs and other organs of the body. These doses, determined for chest examinations during 

different periods, are based on the operating parameters of the machines and the conditions of 

exposure, insofar as these are known.

1.3.3

The Occupational Environmental Dose TBD (ORAU 2005c) applies to unmonitored workers, namely 

LLNL employees who did not wear external dosimetry or who were not monitored for internal 

exposures. At LLNL, everyone, including administrative personnel, wore some type of external 

radiation dosimetry beginning in March 1958 (Nolan 1958). To provide the basis for estimating the 

environmental dose for years when monitoring did not occur or was not sufficient to apply to 

coworkers, this TBD provides annual intakes and ambient external dose from 1952 (1955 for Site 300) 

to 2001 (the last year with publicly available data).

Occupational Environmental Dose

Inhalation of environmental radionuclides results in internal dose to the whole body or body organs. 

The TBD analysis determined the internal dose for workers outside the facilities from air 

concentrations resulting from releases from stacks and individual building releases. Unmonitored 

workers might have been exposed to occupational doses internally from onsite releases to the air. 

The TBD preparers reviewed site environmental reports for data that would be useful in reconstructing 

ambient radiation levels. Ambient radiation dose rates include natural background radiation and 

sources at the facility.

1.3.4

The Occupational Internal Dose TBD (ORAU 2005d) describes the internal dosimetry program at 

LLNL. Workers handled a variety of radionuclides as part of their routine tasks. The key elements in 

the source term are plutonium and tritium, although others were in use at various times and in various 

forms.

Occupational Internal Dose

Prior to the early 1960s, the only methodology used to monitor LLNL employees for intakes of 

radionuclides was urine bioassay, with the primary focus on excreted tritium. It is not clear when 

bioassay monitoring first began, but it continues to the present for plutonium, americium, uranium, 

mixed fission products, a variety of tracer radionuclides, iodine, and tritium (Mansfield 2000). Air 
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0035-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 07/18/2005 Page 7 of 8

monitoring in workplaces and in the breathing zones of employees has been a common surveillance 

method. However, LLNL apparently did not use the data acquired from the air monitoring program to 

prepare the dose of record for employees; these data are not readily associated with individual 

exposures.

In vivo methodologies began on an investigational basis in 1964, with capabilities focused on highenergy (i.e., greater-than-200-keV) gamma emitters. In the 1970s, LLNL attempted to detect lowenergy photon emitters (i.e., 60-keV gammas from the decay of 241Am and plutonium L-shell X-rays). 

To this day, LLNL can provide a broad spectrum of in vivo counting services with varying degrees of 

detectability (Mansfield 2000). 

From at least the late 1980s (and possibly before), LLNL based the setting of action levels on the 

amount of radionuclide excreted or detected in the whole body (Mansfield 1989). Later, it based the 

assessment of intakes and even doses on in vivo and in vitro monitoring results, using computer 

programs developed in-house (Mansfield 2000). In vivo and in vitro analysis data records and 

associated interpretations from the 1960s appear to be retrievable.

A review of in-house procedures used to assess the concentration of radioactivity in urine indicates 

that quality control steps were an integral part of the process (LLNL 1979). For example, duplicates 

were consistently run, and comparisons of results to “known quantities” were a critical step. 

Therefore, dose reconstructors can consider the in vitro results from in-house processing generally 

reliable. However, interpretation of those results can be difficult, primarily because LLNL might not 

have taken the contribution of environmental radioactivity (i.e., uranium, thorium) into account and, 

because samples might have been collected at work (i.e., “in-field” tritium analyses, Monday morning 

urines), cross-contamination could be an issue. 

1.3.5

The Occupational External Dose TBD (ORAU 2005e) describes the program for measuring skin and 

whole-body doses to workers from sources that were external to the body. LLNL workers were 

exposed to radiation from a variety of radioactive materials and radiation-producing machines. In 

addition, many worked at the Nevada Test Site or were involved with other weapons tests from which

they could have received radiation exposures. Personnel dosimeter records are generally available 

for all periods at LLNL for workers with the potential for occupational radiation exposure. The 

operations and radiation safety staff routinely reviewed dosimeter results for compliance with control 

limits and investigated doses approaching annual or quarterly dose limits. As noted above, beginning 

in March 1958 all individuals entering the site received external dosimetry devices (e.g., film badges 

or thermoluminescent dosimeters).

Occupational External Dose
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REFERENCES

LLNL (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), 1979, Radiochemical Procedures for Bioassay, 

Report No. M-104, Livermore, California.

Mansfield, W. G., 1989, Health and Safety Manual - LLNL Internal Dosimetry Program Manual, 

Supplement 33.10, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.

Mansfield, W. G. and A. R. Wood-Zika, 2000, Technical Basis Manual for Internal Dosimetry, UCRLMA-147534, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.

Nolan, W. E., 1958, “Progress Report on Film Badge Program,” memorandum to D. C. Sewell, 

November 13, 1958, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.

Noonan, K., 2002, “NIOSH Request for Description of X-ray Protocols,” cover memorandum, May 17, 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California. 

ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities), 2005a, Technical Basis Document for Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory – Site Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0035-2, Oak Ridge, 

Tennessee.

ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities), 2005b, Technical Basis Document for Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory – Occupational Medical Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0035-3, Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities), 2005c, Technical Basis Document for Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory – Occupational Environmental Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0035-4, 

Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities), 2005d, Technical Basis Document for Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory – Occupational Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0035-5, Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities), 2005e, Technical Basis Document for Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory – Occupational External Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0035-6, Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee.