ORAU TEAM

Dose Reconstruction

Project for NIOSH

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

Page 1 of 9

Document Title:

Argonne National Laboratory - East - 

Introduction 

Document Number: ORAUT-TKBS-0036-1 

Revision: 00

Effective Date: 12/12/2005

Type of Document: TBD

Supersedes: None

Subject Expert: Norman D. Rohrig

Document Owner

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 11/28/2005

Norman D. Rohrig, TBD Team Leader

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 11/28/2005

Judson L. Kenoyer, Task 3 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 12/07/2005

Kate Kimpan, Project Director

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 12/12/2005

Stuart L. Hinnefeld, Health Science Administrator

 New Total Rewrite Revision Page Change

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

REVISION AND DISCARD / DESTROY ALL COPIES OF THE PRIOR REVISION.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0036-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 12/12/2005 Page 2 of 9

PUBLICATION RECORD

EFFECTIVE 

DATE

REVISION 

NUMBER DESCRIPTION

12/12/2005 00 New technical basis document for the Argonne National Laboratory –

East - Introduction. First approved issue. Training required: As 

determined by the Task Manager. Initiated by Norman D. Rohrig and 

Robert Meyer.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0036-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 12/12/2005 Page 3 of 9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TITLE

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

PAGE

4

1.1 Purpose ...................................................................................................................................5

1.2 Scope.......................................................................................................................................6

References ..........................................................................................................................................9
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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ANL-E Argonne National Laboratory-East

CP Chicago Pile

EEOICPA Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, as 

amended

GeV giga electron volt, 1 billion electron volts

MDA minimum detectable activity 

NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

TBD technical basis document

U.S.C. United States Code
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1.1 PURPOSE

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 in the event 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 [DOE] facility” as defined in the Energy Employees 

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

EEOICPA defines a DOE facility as “any building, structure, or premise, including the grounds upon 

which such building, structure, or premise is located ... in which operations are, or have been, 

conducted by, or on behalf of, the Department of Energy (except for buildings, structures, premises, 

grounds, or operations ... pertaining to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program)” [42 U.S.C. § 

7384l(12)]. Accordingly, except for the exclusion for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program noted 

above, any facility that performs or performed DOE operations of any nature whatsoever is a DOE 

facility encompassed by EEOICPA.

For employees of DOE or its contractors with cancer, the DOE facility definition only determines 

eligibility for a dose reconstruction, which is a prerequisite to a compensation decision (except for 

members of the Special Exposure Cohort). The compensation decision for cancer claimants is based 

on a section of the statute entitled “Exposure in the Performance of Duty.” That provision [42 U.S.C. § 

7384n(b)] says that an individual with cancer “shall be determined to have sustained that cancer in the 

performance of duty for purposes of the compensation program if, and only if, the cancer ... was at 

least as likely as not related to employment at the facility [where the employee worked], as 

determined in accordance with the [probability of causation] guidelines established under subsection 

(c) ....” [42 U.S.C. § 7384n(b)]. Neither the statute nor the probability of causation guidelines (nor the 

dose reconstruction regulation) define “performance of duty” for DOE employees with a covered 

cancer or restrict the “duty” to nuclear weapons work.

As noted above, the statute includes a definition of a DOE facility that excludes “buildings, structures, 

premises, grounds, or operations covered by Executive Order No. 12344, dated February 1, 1982 (42

U.S.C. 7158 note), pertaining to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program” [42 U.S.C. §Section

7384l(12)]. While this definition contains an exclusion with respect to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion 

Program, the section of EEOICPA that deals with the compensation decision for covered employees 

with cancer [i.e., 42 U.S.C. § 7384n(b), entitled “Exposure in the Performance of Duty”] does not 

contain such an exclusion. Therefore, the statute requires NIOSH to include all radiation exposures in 

its dose reconstructions for employees at DOE facilities, including radiation exposures related to the 

Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. As a result, all internal and external dosimetry results are 

considered valid for use in dose reconstruction. No efforts are made to determine the eligibility of any 

fraction of total measured exposure for inclusion in dose reconstruction.

This site profile documents the history of the Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) site in Illinois 

in relation to radiation dosimetry. This information may be used to evaluate both internal and external 

dosimetry data for unmonitored and monitored workers and serve as a supplement to, or substitute 

for, individual monitoring data. This site profile provides supporting technical data to evaluate the total 

occupational radiation dose that can reasonably be associated with a worker’s radiation exposure at 

ANL-E. This dose could be the result of exposure to external and internal radiation sources inside
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0036-1 Revision No. 00 Effective Date: 12/12/2005 Page 6 of 9

ANL-E facilities, to ANL-E occupationally required diagnostic X-ray examinations, and to 

environmental releases while the worker was on the site but outside of the facilities. The discussions 

include doses that could have occurred while the worker was not monitored or that could have been 

missed. 

Over the years since ANL-E began operation, more reliable scientific methods and protection 

measures have been developed for radiation detection, monitoring, dosimetry, and protection

systems. This site profile discusses the methods needed to account for these changes. The doses 

are to be evaluated using the NIOSH Interactive RadioEpidemiological Program and the Integrated 

Modules for Bioassay Analysis software. Information on measurement uncertainties is an integral 

component of the NIOSH approach, and this document describes the uncertainty evaluation for 

ANL-E exposure and dose records.

1.2 SCOPE

This site profile is comprised of this Introduction and five major sections individually published as 

TBDs: Site Description, Occupational Medical Dose, Occupational Environmental Dose, Occupational 

Internal Dose, and Occupational External Dosimetry. 

Site Description

The Site Description TBD (ORAUT 2006a) briefly describes the facilities and processes at ANL-E 

since 1946. The ANL-E site is in DuPage County, Illinois, about 25 miles southwest of downtown 

Chicago, and it covers about 1,500 acres.

ANL-E has been operated by the University of Chicago since it was founded on July 1, 1946. The 

laboratory’s predecessor was the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, which developed 

and operated the first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1) under the West Stands of Stagg 

Field. The reactor first operated on December 2, 1942. In 1943, CP-1 was relocated to Site A at the 

Palos Park Reserve just southeast of the present site (originally known as Site D), and CP-1 was 

renamed as CP-2. The Chicago area site became known as ANL–E after the National Reactor 

Testing Station where the ANL-West is located (now the Idaho National Laboratory) was established. 

ANL-West has since become part of the Idaho National Laboratory. 

ANL-E was responsible for many initial reactor designs located at other sites and was home to CP-3, 

CP-5, the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor, Janus, and some training reactors. ANL-E 

participated in developing techniques for fuel fabrication and reprocessing. Fundamental research 

was conducted much like at a university, with buildings for biology, chemistry, physics, chemical

engineering, etc. Several modest accelerators preceded operation of the Zero Gradient Synchrotron, 

which accelerated protons to 12.5 GeV for high-energy physics. Currently operating accelerators 

include the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source, Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System, and the 

Advanced Photon Source.

The Site Description TBD provides information about the facilities and identifies unusual events that 

took place at ANL-E. 

Occupational Medical Dose

The Occupational Medical Dose TBD (ORAUT 2005) provides information about the dose that 

individual workers received from X-rays that were required as a condition of employment. These 

included pre-employment and periodic chest X-rays during physical examinations. The frequency of 

required X-rays varied over time and as a function of the worker’s age. Both the X-ray equipment and 

the techniques used for taking X-rays have changed over the years, and this document accounts for 
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these changes in determining the dose that a worker could have received from an X-ray at a particular 

time with particular equipment and techniques. Where there was doubt about the technique used, 

assumptions have been made to ensure that the dose has not been underestimated. Important 

parameters include the tube current and voltage, exposure time, source to skin distance, and the view 

(posterior–anterior or lateral). The doses to other organs exposed by chest X-rays have also been 

calculated. The uncertainty on the calculated dose takes into account the uncertainty associated with 

each of the parameters mentioned above. Tables list the doses received by the various organs in the 

body for convenient reference by the dose reconstructors.

Occupational Environmental Dose

The Occupational Environmental Dose TBD (ORAUT 2006b) discusses the maximum dose to the 

whole body and organs that workers could have received when outside the buildings at ANL-E from 

inhalation of radioactive materials in the atmosphere, from direct radiation from effluent plumes, and 

from direct exposure to radionuclides that may have become incorporated into the soil.

The radionuclide concentrations at ANL-E site areas are based principally on measurements of stack 

effluents coupled with ground-level maximum annual average air concentrations. Annual intakes of 

these radionuclides were calculated with standard breathing rates and exposure times. Annual 

external whole-body dose to workers from ambient radiation and from submersion in the annual 

radioactive material concentration is provided by the measurement of direct gamma values at the 

ANL-E facility with TLDs since 1972. Measurements were at the site boundary and near facilities 

believed to impact dose at the site boundary.

Occupational Internal Dose

The Occupational Internal Dose TBD (ORAUT 2006c) discusses the internal dosimetry program at 

ANL-E. This document contains a comprehensive default table to guide internal dose reconstruction 

in cases with minimal data. In addition, the document discusses the in vitro minimum detectable 

activities (MDAs), the analytical methods, and the reporting protocols for the radionuclides at ANL-E. 

As expected, these parameters varied somewhat over the years for each of the radionuclides 

evaluated, although the capabilities were relatively consistent throughout the history of the site. The 

primary radionuclides of concern are those associated with spent high-enriched fuels: mixed fission 

products (from a variety of reactor types), mixed activation products, plutonium (with a predominance 

of 238Pu), americium, and uranium (both high-enriched and depleted). This document also discusses 

the in vivo MDAs, the analytical methods, and the reporting protocols for the X-ray and 

gamma-emitting radionuclides.

In addition, this document presents information for workers with no confirmed intakes but who could 

have been exposed in the early days when monitoring programs were not required and for workers 

with monitored readings below the detection limits. The document discusses methods for evaluating 

potential doses that fall in these categories and provides additional data for the evaluation of the 

worst-case scenario and for unmonitored workers.

Occupational External Dosimetry

The Occupational External Dosimetry TBD (ORAUT 2006d) discusses the program for measuring skin 

and whole-body doses to the workers. This document describes the dose reconstruction parameters, 

practices, and policies, and the dosimeter types and technologies for measuring dose from different 

types of radiation. The discussion includes an evaluation of doses measured from exposure to beta, 

gamma, and neutron radiation. Tables provide test results for various dosimeters exposed to different 

exposure geometries, radiation types, and energies. There are detailed discussions of sources of 

bias, workplace radiation field characteristics, responses of the different beta/gamma and neutron 
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dosimeters in the workplace fields, and the adjustments to the recorded dose measured by these 

dosimeters during specific years.

Missed dose is discussed as a function of dosimeter type, year, and energy range. In addition, the 

document describes the use of the external dosimetry technical basis parameters to facilitate the 

efforts of the dose reconstructors.
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REFERENCES

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006a, Technical Basis Document for the 

Argonne National Laboratory-East – Site Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0036-2, Rev. 00, Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005, Technical Basis Document for the Argonne 

National Laboratory-East – Occupational Medical Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0036-3, Rev. 00, Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006b, Technical Basis Document for the 

Argonne National Laboratory-East – Occupational Environmental Dose, 

ORAUT-TKBS-0036-4, Rev. 0, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006c, Technical Basis Document for the 

Argonne National Laboratory-East – Occupational Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0036-5, 

Rev. 0, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006d, Technical Basis Document for the 

Argonne National Laboratory-East – Occupational External Dosimetry, ORAUT-TKBS-0036-6, 

Rev. 0, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.