ORAU TEAM

Dose Reconstruction

Project for NIOSH

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

Page 1 of 7

Document Title:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory –

Introduction

Document Number: ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1

Revision: 01

Effective Date: 05/08/2007

Type of Document TBD

Supersedes: Revision 00

Subject Expert(s): Edward D. Scalsky

Site Expert(s): N/A

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 05/03/2007

Edward D. Scalsky, Document Owner

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 05/04/2007

John M. Byrne, Task 3 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 05/03/2007

Edward F. Maher, Task 5 Manager

Concurrence: James P. Griffin Signature on File for Concurrence Date: 05/03/2007

Kate Kimpan, Project Director

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 05/08/2007

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-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 2 of 7

PUBLICATION RECORD

EFFECTIVE 

DATE

REVISION 

NUMBER DESCRIPTION

08/22/2005 00 New document to describe the contents of the Pacific Northwest 

National Laboratory Site Profile. First approved issue. Training 

required: As determined by the Task Manager. Initiated by Edward 

D. Scalsky.

05/08/2007 01 Approved revision initiated to include a Purpose, Scope, and 

Attributions and Annotations. Incorporates formal internal review 

comments. This revision results in no change to the assigned dose 

and no PER is required. Training required: As determined by the 

Task Manager. Initiated by Edward D. Scalsky.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 3 of 7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TITLE

Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................

PAGE

4

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

1.2 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................6

1.3 Scope .........................................................................................................................................6

1.4 Site Profile Description................................................................................................................6

1.5 Attributions and Annotations .......................................................................................................6

References ..........................................................................................................................................7
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 4 of 7

ACRONYMS

AEC Atomic Energy Commission

DOE Department of Energy

EEOICPA Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000

MDA minimum detectable activity

NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

PNNL Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

POC Probability of Causation

TBD technical basis document

U.S.C. United States Code
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 5 of 7

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Technical basis documents and site profile documents are not official determinations made by the 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) but are rather general working 

documents that provide historic background information and guidance to assist in 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 NIOSH staff 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 causation1

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. § 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 occupationally derived radiation 

exposures at covered facilities 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 monitoring 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. NIOSH, however, does not consider the following exposures to be occupationally 

derived:

] 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.

• Radiation from naturally occurring radon present in conventional structures 

 

1 The U.S. Department of Labor is ultimately responsible under the EEOICPA for determining the probability of 

causation (POC).
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 6 of 7

• Radiation from diagnostic X-rays received in the treatment of work-related injuries

1.2 PURPOSE

The purpose of this Introduction is to provide a summary of the contents of the five TBDs that, along 

with this introduction, constitute the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Site Profile.

1.3 SCOPE

The Site Profile is divided into this Introduction and five major TBDs: Site Description, Occupational 

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

External Dosimetry. This Introduction briefly describes the contents of those five TBDs. 

1.4 SITE PROFILE DESCRIPTION

This Site Profile consists of this Introduction, and five TBDs (ORAUT 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2005d, 

2005e).

The Site Description TBD (ORAUT 2005a) briefly describes the facilities and processes of Pacific 

Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) primary mission, which originally was research and 

development of nuclear energy and other peaceful uses of nuclear materials. PNNL operated seven 

testing, research, and demonstration reactors; several fuel fabrication facilities; a plutonium fuels pilot 

plant; a radiological calibration and development laboratory; and a radiochemistry laboratory in the 

300 Area of the Hanford site. In addition, PNNL operated other facilities for testing chemical process 

improvements, materials and engineering studies, pile physics technology and metallurgical studies, 

post irradiation testing, environmental and bioassay programs, and many other research programs.

Not all of these programs were necessarily in the 300 Area. 

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

the Occupational External Dosimetry programs at the PNNL are the same programs that existed at 

Hanford subsequent to 01/03/1965 when Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) assumed responsibility for 

operation of the Hanford Laboratories and certain Hanford-wide services and functions as part of the 

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) operations at the Hanford site. Since that is the case, it has been 

determined that any dose reconstructions that incorporate the dose received by PNNL employees as 

a result of required medical x-ray examinations, environmental releases, or from internal or external 

exposure to radiation will be determined based on the programs described in the corresponding 

Hanford TBDs (ORAUT 2005f, 2006a, 2004a, 2006b) and any associated attachments (ORAUT 

2004b). 

The four PNNL TBDs have been revised to instruct dose reconstructors to refer to the equivalent 

Hanford TBDs for information needed to perform dose reconstructions for PNNL employees after 

01/03/1965. 

1.5 ATTRIBUTIONS AND ANNOTATIONS

All information requiring identification was addressed via references integrated into the reference 

section of this document.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0027-1 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 05/08/2007 Page 7 of 7

REFERENCES

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2004a, Technical Basis Document for the 

Hanford Site – Occupational Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0006-5, Rev. 01, Oak Ridge, 

Tennessee, November 24. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2004b, Technical Basis Document for the 

Hanford Site – Attachment D, Occupational Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0006-5, Rev. 01, 

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, November 24.

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005a, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – 

Site Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0027-2, Rev. 00, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, August 5. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005b, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory –

Occupational Medical Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0027-3, Rev. 00, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, August 

9. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005c, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – 

Occupational Environmental Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0027-4, Rev. 00, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 

August 12. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005d, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – 

Occupational Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0027-5, Rev. 00, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, August 

12. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005e, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – 

Occupational External Dosimetry, ORAUT-TKBS-0027-6, Rev. 00, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 

August 12. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2005f, Hanford Site – Occupational Medical 

Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0006-3, Rev. 01, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, April 11. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006a, Hanford Site – Occupational 

Environmental Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0006-4, Rev. 01, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, December 20. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2006b, Hanford Site – Occupational External 

Dosimetry, ORAUT-TKBS-00006-6, Rev. 02, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, November 21.