Division of Compensation Analysis and Document Number: DCAS-PER-047

Support Effective Date: 3/26/2014

Program Evaluation Report Revision No. 0

Grand Junction Operations Office Page 1 of 2

Author: Signature on file Date: 3/26/2014 _ Supersedes: None

 Dave Allen, HP Team Leader

Approval: Signature on file Date: 3/26/2014 _ 

 J.W. Neton, Associate Director for Science

RECORD OF ISSUE/REVISIONS

ISSUE EFFECTIVE REV. NO. DESCRIPTION

AUTHORIZATION DATE

DATE

New document to determine the effect 

3/26/2014 3/26/2014 0 on previously completed claims due to 

changes to Grand Junction Operations 

Office dose reconstructions.

 

1.0 Description 

No Technical Basis Document exists for Grand Junction Operations Office (GJOO) 

claims. However, a template has been used as guidance to complete claims. During the 

evaluation of a Special Exposure Cohort petition, additional information was discovered 

that required a change to the template. The template was edited on 9/5/2012 to 

incorporate the additional information. This PER is intended to evaluate the effect of 

these changes on previous dose reconstructions. 

2.0 Issue Evaluation 

On April 29, 2011, the Secretary of Health and Human Services designated a Special 

Exposure Cohort (SEC) for GJOO. The SEC designation specified that NIOSH was 

unable to estimate external dose prior to 1960 or internal dose prior to February 1975. 

While evaluating the SEC petition, additional information was discovered that includes: 

 Additional external dosimetry data discovered causing each claim to be reviewed 

to determine if the data was previously available and used. 

 The existence of a neutron source used by geologists requiring an estimate of 

neutron exposure to specific groups of employees 

 While all radiation workers were reportedly monitored, it is now unclear if the 

monitoring records are complete thus changing the approach to unmonitored 

workers. Unmonitored workers were previously given an environmental dose but 

now receive a co-worker dose. 
Division of Compensation Analysis and 

Support

Program Evaluation Plan

Document Number: DCAS-PER-047

Effective Date: 3/26/2014 Revision No. 0 Page 2 of 2

 Additional airborne activity data was found including radon data. This caused a 

revision to previous intake estimates including radon.

3.0 Plan for Resolution or Corrective Action

All GJOO claims with a probability of causation (POC) <50% were reviewed to 

determine if the latest information was used. Those that utilized the latest information

were not reviewed further. Additionally, those with no employment after 1959 were 

removed from further consideration since no dose estimate exists in that time frame due 

to the SEC. Lastly, any of these claims that would qualify for compensation under this 

SEC (or other SEC) were removed. Qualifying for compensation includes at least 250 

days of employment during the SEC period and diagnosis with a qualifying cancer at an 

applicable time frame following first exposure. Any claims meeting those requirements 

that also included a cancer not designated for compensation under the SEC would still be 

considered for potential effect on medical benefits. However, no claims evaluated under 

this PER met that condition.

This process resulted in a total of 24 claims to be further evaluated under this PER. 

3.1 Determination of claims which will change due to TBD revision.

Dose for the each of the 24 claims was recalculated using all current dose reconstruction 

methods. From the recalculated dose, a new probability of causation (POC) was 

determined. The POC remained below 45% for 22 claims. The POC fell between 45% 

and 50% for 1 claim. For that claim, IREP was run 30 times with 10,000 iterations for 

each run in accordance with NIOSH procedures. As a result, the claim remained below 

50%. The remaining claim produced a POC greater than 50%. NIOSH will notify DOL 

of all the results and request a return of the 1 claim that would now result in a POC 

greater than 50%.