ORAU TEAM

Dose Reconstruction

Project for NIOSH

Oak Ridge Associated Universities I Dade Moeller I MJW Technical Services

Page 1 of 9

DOE Review Release 03/29/2010

Document Title:

Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National 

Laboratory-West – Introduction

Document Number: ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1

Revision: 03 

Effective Date: 03/12/2010

Type of Document: TBD

Supersedes: Revision 02 and ORAUTTKBS-0026-1 Revision 01

Subject Expert(s): JoAnn M. Jenkins

Site Expert(s): Norman D. Rohrig

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 03/10/2010

JoAnn M. Jenkins, Document Owner

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 03/09/2010

John M. Byrne, Objective 1 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 03/09/2010

Edward F. Maher, Objective 3 Manager

Concurrence: Signature on File Concurrence Date: 03/10/2010

Kate Kimpan, Project Director

Approval: Signature on File Approval Date: 03/12/2010

Stuart L. Hinnefeld, Interim Director, DCAS

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-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 2 of 9

PUBLICATION RECORD

EFFECTIVE 

DATE

REVISION 

NUMBER DESCRIPTION

05/07/2004 00 New document for the INEEL Introduction. Incorporates responses 

to OCAS comments. First approved issue. Initiated by Norman D. 

Rohrig.

12/13/2006 01 Approved revision as a result of biennial review. Revised language 

in the Purpose section as required by NIOSH. Attribution and 

Annotation section added. Constitutes a total rewrite of document. 

Incorporates internal, NIOSH, and DOL formal 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 Norman D. Rohrig.

04/26/2007 02 Approved Revision 02 revised to change document owner and to 

better identify references in the text. 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 Jo Ann 

M. Jenkins.

03/12/2010 03 Revised to combine the INL and ANL-W Introductions into a single 

document. Updated NIOSH required language. Incorporates formal 

internal and NIOSH review comments. Training required: As 

determined by the Objective Manager. Initiated by JoAnn M. 

Jenkins.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 3 of 9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TITLE

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

PAGE

4

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

1.1.1 Purpose........................................................................................................................6

1.1.2 Scope...........................................................................................................................6

1.2 Attributions and Annotations ....................................................................................................8

References ..........................................................................................................................................9
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 4 of 9

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ANL-W Argonne National Laboratory–West 

CFA Central Facilities Area

CFR Code of Federal Regulations

DOE U.S. Department of Energy

DOL U.S. Department of Labor

EEOICPA Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000

INL Idaho National Laboratory

MDA minimum detectable activity

mi mile

NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

No. Number

ORAU Oak Ridge Associated Universities

POC probability of causation

Pt. Part

SRDB Ref ID Site Research Database reference identification (number)

TAN Test Area North

TBD technical basis document

U.S.C. United States Code

§ section or sections
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 5 of 9

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 POC [probability of causation1

The statute also 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 excludes Naval Nuclear Propulsion Facilities from being covered under the Act, 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 occupational radiation exposures are considered valid for inclusion in a 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 (NIOSH 2007):

] 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, 42 C.F.R. Pt. 82) define “performance of duty” for 

DOE employees with a covered cancer or restrict the “duty” to nuclear weapons work (NIOSH 2007).

• Background radiation, including radiation from naturally occurring radon present in 

conventional structures

• Radiation from X-rays received in the diagnosis of injuries or illnesses or for therapeutic 

reasons

 

1

 The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is ultimately responsible under the EEOICPA for determining the POC. 
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 6 of 9

1.1.1 Purpose

This site profile documents historical practices at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Argonne 

National Laboratory–West (ANL-W) (which is within the INL site). The site profile can be used to 

evaluate internal and external dosimetry data for unmonitored and monitored workers and can serve 

as a supplement to individual monitoring data. It contains technical basis information to be used to 

evaluate the total occupational radiation dose for EEOICPA claimants.

The purpose of this Introduction is to provide a summary of the contents of the five technical basis 

documents (TBDs) that, along with this Introduction, constitute the INL and ANL-W Site Profile.

1.1.2

The site profile consists of six technical basis documents (TBDs): (1) this Introduction, (2) Site 

Description, (3) Occupational Medical Dose, (4) Occupational Environmental Dose, (5) Occupational 

Internal Dose, and (6) Occupational External Dosimetry. 

Scope

Site Description

The Site Description TBD (ORAUT 2007a) briefly describes the facilities and processes at INL since 

the early 1950s. The INL site, about 50 mi west of Idaho Falls in the Arco desert, covers about 

890 mi2

. There are many additional offices and a few laboratories in Idaho Falls as well. Previous 

names for the INL site were the National Reactor Testing Station (1949 to 1974), the Idaho National 

Engineering Laboratory (1974 to 1997), and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental 

Laboratory (1997 to 2005).

The Central Facilities Area (CFA), formerly a Navy gunnery testing facility, now provides support 

facilities, central services, and laboratories. Radioactive wastes from the site and from the Rocky 

Flats Plant are handled and stored at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Argonne 

National Laboratory-West developed and operated reactors at two locations: (1) south of CFA and (2) 

at the east edge of the site. Highly enriched uranium spent fuel was reprocessed at the Idaho 

Chemical Processing Plant along with the resultant high-level waste. The Test Reactor Area 

supported three large research reactors, several smaller reactors, and several laboratories. Test Area 

North (TAN) was home to the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program and the Loss of Fluid Test 

program. Armor for the U.S. Army is constructed at the Specific Manufacturing Capability facility at 

TAN. Reactor safety tests were conducted at the Special Power Excursion Reactor Test facilities. 

The Army Reactor Area was used to test reactors and was the site of an accident at Stationary LowPower Reactor No. 1 (Horan and Gammill 1963).

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

took place at INL facilities.

Occupational Medical Dose

The Occupational Medical Dose TBD (ORAUT 2009) provides information about the dose that 

individual workers received from X-rays that were required as a condition of employment. These Xrays included chest X-rays during preemployment and periodic physical exams. 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 for taking chest X-rays that are covered by this TBD have changed over the years. 

These factors have been taken into account in determining the dose that a worker would have 

received from the X-ray. When there was a doubt about the technique that was used, assumptions 

that are favorable to claimants were made to ensure that the dose has not been underestimated. 

Important parameters include the tube current and voltage, exposure time, source-to-skin distance, 
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 7 of 9

and view (posterior-anterior or lateral). Doses to other exposed organs from the chest X-ray have 

been calculated. The uncertainty that is associated with the calculated dose takes into account the 

uncertainty that is associated with each of the parameters mentioned above. Tables list doses to 

organs in the body for convenient reference by dose reconstructors.

Occupational Environmental Dose

The Occupational Environmental Dose TBD (ORAUT 2010) provides the maximum dose to the whole 

body and body organs that workers could have received when working outside buildings at a given 

location at INL or ANL-W from inhalation of radioactive materials in the atmosphere, from direct 

radiation from effluent plumes, and from direct exposure to radionuclides and radiation sources that 

might have become incorporated in the soil.

The radionuclide concentrations at INL and ANL-W areas are based principally on measurements of 

stack effluents coupled with ground-level maximum annual average air concentrations from the 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 56 radionuclides that have been assigned 

to the annual effluent list, nine of them (

144Ce, 131I, 147Pm, 238Pu, 239/240Pu, 106Ru, 89Sr, 90Sr, and 91Y) 

have been demonstrated to contribute about 95% of the total internal dose by a screening process 

using dose conversion factors from the International Commission on Radiological Protection. 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 INL facility fences.

Occupational Internal Dose

The Occupational Internal Dose TBD (ORAUT 2007b) discusses the internal dosimetry program at 

INL and ANL-W. 

This TBD contains a comprehensive default table to guide internal dose reconstruction in cases with 

minimal data. In addition, the TBD discusses in vitro minimum detectable activities (MDAs), analytical 

methods, and reporting protocols for radionuclides. As expected, these parameters varied somewhat 

over the years for each of the evaluated radionuclides, but the capabilities were relatively consistent 

through the history of the site. The primary radionuclides of concern are those that are associated 

with spent highly enriched fuels such as mixed fission products from a variety of reactor types, mixed 

activation products, plutonium (with a predominance of 238Pu), americium, and highly enriched and 

depleted uranium. This TBD discusses in vivo MDAs, analytical methods, and reporting protocols for 

X- and gamma-ray emitting radionuclides.

This TBD presents information for workers who could have been exposed in the early days, but had 

no confirmed intakes. This could have occurred under circumstances in which monitoring programs 

were not required or when the monitored readings were below detection limits. The document 

discusses methods for evaluating potential doses that fall in this category 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 2007c) discusses the program for measuring skin 

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

practices, policies, and dosimeter types and technologies for measuring doses from different types of 

radiation. Discussion includes evaluation of measured doses from exposure to beta, gamma, and 

neutron radiation. Tables provide test results for various dosimeters that were exposed to different 

exposure geometries, radiation types, and energies. Sources of bias, workplace radiation field 
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 8 of 9

characteristics, responses of beta/gamma and neutron dosimeters in workplace fields, and 

adjustments to the recorded dose these dosimeters measured during specific years are discussed in 

detail.

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

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

dose reconstructors.

1.2 ATTRIBUTIONS AND ANNOTATIONS

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

section of this document.

Norman Rohrig served as the initial Document Owner for this document. Mr. Rohrig was previously 

employed at INL, which shared boundaries with ANL-W and used the same dosimetry systems. His 

work involved management, direction, or implementation of radiation protection and/or health physics 

program policies, procedures, or practices in relation to atomic weapons activities at the site. This 

revision has been overseen by a new Document Owner, who is fully responsible for the content of this 

document, including all findings and conclusions. In all cases where such information or previous 

studies or writings are included or relied upon by the Document Owner, JoAnn M. Jenkins, those 

materials are fully attributed to the source.
Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0007-1 Revision No. 03 Effective Date: 03/12/2010 Page 9 of 9

REFERENCES

Horan, J. R., and Gammill, W. P., 1963, “The Health Physics Aspects of the SL-1 Accident,” Health 

Physics, volume 9, pp. 177–186. [SRDB Ref ID: 26108]

NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), 2007, Radiation Exposures Covered 

for Dose Reconstructions Under Part B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act, OCAS-IG-003, Rev. 0, Office of Compensation Analysis and 

Support, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 5. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2007a, Idaho National Laboratory – Site 

Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0007-2, Rev. 03, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, August 17. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2007b, Idaho National Laboratory – Occupational 

Internal Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0007-5, Rev. 02, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 30. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2007c, Idaho National Laboratory - Occupational 

External Dosimetry, ORAUT-TKBS-0007-6, Rev. 02, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, June 18. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2009, Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne 

National Laboratory - West – Occupational Medical Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0007-3, Rev. 02, 

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, December 21. 

ORAUT (Oak Ridge Associated Universities Team), 2010, Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne 

National Laboratory - West – Occupational Environmental Dose, ORAUT-TKBS-0007-4, Rev. 

02, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, January 8.