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.

___January 6, 2011____ __[Signature on file]_____________

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at BWX Technologies, 

Inc., in Lynchburg, Virginia during the period from January 1, 1985 through 

November 30, 1994, 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 included 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 December 

10, 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 determined that members of this class may have received internal 

and external radiation exposures to fission and activation products, uranium 

of varying degrees of enrichment, and thorium that may have been present 

during fuel fabrication, uranium recovery, and commercial reactor and 

laboratory operations at the site.

• NIOSH finds that it 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 for BWX Technologies, Inc. 

(BWXT) workers during the period of AWE operations from January 1, 1985 

through November 30, 1994.

• NIOSH determined that the BWXT internal monitoring data generated during 

the 1980s were too limited to bound internal doses to unmonitored workers. 

Specifically, findings by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the 

1980s noted that the plans, procedures and records for BWXT were so 

sparse that it was impossible for NRC to audit the facility at that time.

• NIOSH also determined that bioassay results provided to BWXT by the 

facility’s bioassay vendor, Controls for Environmental Pollution (CEP), are 

inadequate for dose reconstruction from February 1, 1991 through November 

1994. DOE determined in 1994 that CEP falsified bioassay analysis results 

for a DOE client, and NIOSH therefore considers bioassay results reported by 

CEP to BWXT (specifically, BWXT in vitro bioassay results between February 

1, 1991 and December 1, 1994) to be inadequate for BWXT dose 

reconstruction.

• In its previous evaluation of petition SEC-00169, NIOSH concluded that 

external dose reconstruction is feasible at BWXT for the latter two AWE 

operational periods (1968 through 1972, and 1985 through 2001). This 

current evaluation found no evidence to the contrary. 

• 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 completely reconstruct 

radiation doses for employees who worked at BWXT in Lynchburg, Virginia,

during the evaluated period, NIOSH intends to use any reliable internal and 

external monitoring data that may become available for an individual claim 

(and that can be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose reconstruction 

processes or procedures). Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at

BWXT during the period from January 1, 1985 through November 30, 1994, 

who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be performed using these 

data as appropriate.

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

BWXT workers with sufficient accuracy 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.