HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

BWX Technologies Inc., Lynchburg, VA

HHS 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 from 

BWX Technologies, Inc.

Lynchburg, Virginia
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

BWX Technologies Inc., Lynchburg, VA

Page 2

I. Designation 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, 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.

____July 13, 2010___ ___[Signature on file]_______

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at BWX 

Technologies, Inc., in Lynchburg, Virginia from January 1, 1959 

through December 31, 1959; and/or from January 1, 1968 through 

December 31, 1972, 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 

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.

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 June 16, 

2010.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

BWX Technologies Inc., Lynchburg, VA

Page 3

IV. Designation Findings

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

• NIOSH lacks sufficient biological monitoring data, air monitoring information, and 

process and radiological source term information to allow it to estimate with 

sufficient accuracy the potential internal exposures to fission and activation 

products, uranium, and thorium to which the proposed class may have been 

subjected.

• NIOSH finds that it is likely feasible to reconstruct occupational medical dose for 

BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT), workers with sufficient accuracy.

• Principal sources of internal and external radiation for members of the proposed 

class included exposures to fission and activation products, uranium of varying 

degrees of enrichment, and thorium. Associated BWXT operations included fuel 

fabrication, uranium recovery, and commercial reactor and laboratory operations.

• Urine sampling at BWXT during the 1959 AWE period used fluorometric analysis 

for evaluating uranium exposures to workers; such analysis is insufficient for the 

evaluation of enriched uranium intakes unless enrichment values are known. 

Data available to NIOSH do not provide adequate enrichment values for 1959.

• BWXT did not directly monitor worker exposures to thorium using bioassay. 

Thorium intakes may be inferred from bioassay-derived uranium intakes if the 

relative activities of thorium and uranium can be established; however, the 

records available to NIOSH for 1959 do not definitively show that thorium was 

always used in conjunction with uranium at BWXT.

• For individuals who worked where high-activity commercial materials were 

handled and stored, personnel internal dose monitoring records were not found 

for the first AWE operational period (1959).

• NIOSH does not have access to sufficient personnel monitoring, workplace 

monitoring, or source term data to estimate unmonitored internal exposures for 

BWXT workers during the periods of AWE operations from January 1, 1959 

through December 31, 1959, and/or from January 1, 1968 through December 31, 

1972, regardless of assigned work location.

• 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.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

BWX Technologies Inc., Lynchburg, VA

Page 4

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

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

data that may become available (and that can be interpreted using existing 

NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures) for an individual claim. 

Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at BWXT during the periods from 

January 1, 1959 through December 31, 1959; and/or January 1, 1968 through 

December 31, 1972, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be 

performed using these data as appropriate. 

• NIOSH finds that reconstruction of medical dose is likely to be feasible by using 

claimant-favorable assumptions in the Technical Information Bulletin, Dose 

Reconstruction from Occupationally Related Diagnostic X-Ray Procedures

(ORAUT-OTIB-0006).

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH evaluation and recommended the 

proposed class for addition 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 (excluding 

aggregate work day requirements) 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-work day 

requirement specified under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii). 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

BWX Technologies Inc., Lynchburg, VA

Page 5

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 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.