U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Designation
 

of Additional Members of the Special Exposure Cohort
 

under the
 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees
 

Argonne National Laboratory-West
 

Scoville, Idaho
 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:
 

Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville, Idaho [SEC Petition 00224]
 
I. Designation 

I, Sylvia M. Burwell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS), designate the class of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to 

the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational 

Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q. 

Date 

June 3, 2016 

Sylvia M. Burwell 

[Signature on File] 

 

 

 

II. Employee Class Definition 

All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their 

contractors and subcontractors who worked at the Argonne National Laboratory-West 

during the time period from April 10, 1951, through December 31, 1957, for a 

number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, occurring either solely 

under this employment, or in combination with work days within the parameters 

established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure 

Cohort. 

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations 

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the Secretary 

has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (Board) has 

recommended, that 

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

received; and 

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have endangered the 

health of members of the class. 

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations to 

estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, the rule 

states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if the National Institute 

for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has established that it has access to sufficient 

information to estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of cancer for which 

radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been incurred under plausible 

circumstances by any member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated 

with sufficient accuracy if NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information 

to estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a maximum dose 

estimate. 

NIOSH determined that there is insufficient information to estimate the radiation dose of 

individual members of the class with sufficient accuracy under the two abovementioned 

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HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville, Idaho [SEC Petition 00224] 
 

 

 

situations. The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on May 4, 2016. 

IV. Designation Findings 

Infeasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy 

The Secretary designates the class of employees covered by this report based upon the 

findings summarized below. 

•	 NIOSH has identified that principal sources of internal and external radiation dose for 

members of the evaluated ANL-W class working in the Experimental Breeder Reactor-I 

(EBR-I) and EBR-II Complexes included beta-gamma and neutron exposures to various 

isotopes of uranium, plutonium, thorium, and other actinides, as well as exotic 

radionuclides (produced from, or as a result of, reactor neutron irradiation) that include 

mixed fission and activation products (MFP/MAP), radioiodines, noble gases, and other 

radionuclides. 

•	 NIOSH has determined that it lacks sufficient information, which includes biological and 

air monitoring information, or process and radiological source information that would 

allow it to estimate exposures from potential internal radiation dose during the period 

from April 10, 1951, through December 31, 1957. 

•	 Similarly, NIOSH has determined that it lacks sufficient personnel- or area-monitoring 

data to support complete reconstruction of external personnel exposures for the period 

from April 10, 1951, through December 31, 1957. 

•	 NIOSH finds that it is feasible to reconstruct occupational medical dose for ANL-W 

workers with sufficient accuracy. 

•	 The Board concurred with the NIOSH finding that it could not reconstruct internal 

radiation exposures for the proposed class of workers for the period from April 10, 1951, 

through December 31, 1957. 

•	 Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is insufficient 

information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of cancer 

for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been incurred under plausible 

circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) estimate the radiation doses of members 

of the class more precisely than a maximum dose estimate. 

•	 Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct radiation doses 

for the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal and external monitoring data 

that may become available for an individual claim (and that can be interpreted using 

existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures). Therefore, dose 

reconstructions for individuals employed at the ANL-W during the time period from 

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HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville, Idaho [SEC Petition 00224] 
 

 

 

April 10, 1951, and December 31, 1957, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, 

may be performed using these data as appropriate. 

•	 The Board concurred with NIOSH’s recommendation to add the proposed class of 

workers to the SEC. 

Health Endangerment 

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below. 

(1)	 Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), NIOSH established that there is a reasonable 

likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the health of members of 

the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), NIOSH specified a minimum 

duration of employment to satisfy this health endangerment criterion as “having been 

employed for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days within the 

parameters established for this class or in combination with work days within the 

parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Cohort.” 

(2)	 NIOSH did not identify any evidence from the petitioners or from other resources that 

would establish that the class was exposed to radiation during a discrete incident likely 

to have involved exceptionally high-level exposures, such as a nuclear criticality 

incident, as defined under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3)	 The Board concurred with NIOSH’s finding that the health of the class may have been 

endangered and defined the class according to the 250-workday requirement specified 

under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c) (3)(ii). 

V.	 Effect and Effective Date of Designation 

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the SEC for 

review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 7384q(c)(2)(A), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). 

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended 

in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 

days after the date of this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise 

provides.” 

VI. Administrative Review of Designation 

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report may be 

subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.18(a). On the 

basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class of employees covered by 

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HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville, Idaho [SEC Petition 00224] 
this designation, the Secretary would transmit a supplementary report to Congress providing 

the expanded employee class definition and the criteria and findings on which the decision 

was based. 

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HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Argonne National Laboratory-West, Scoville, Idaho [SEC Petition 00224]