HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

 

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 

Sandia National Laboratories 

Albuquerque, New Mexico 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

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. 

____May 11, 2012_____ _[Signature on file]___________ 

 Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition 

All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and 

their contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area at Sandia 

National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from January 1, 1963 

through December 31, 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 April 11, 

2012.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

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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 principal sources of internal radiation for members of the 

proposed class included exposures to plutonium, tritium, uranium, americium, 

and fission and activation products. Potential exposure pathways could have 

involved the handling of these radionuclides during waste-burial operations and 

related research and support missions or exposure to surface or air 

contamination associated with reactors and/or accelerators work. 

 NIOSH found that source terms and associated exposures varied over the 

evaluated period. Considering the potential exposure scenarios, NIOSH finds it 

is unable to estimate these internal exposures with sufficient accuracy for the 

period from January 1, 1963 through December 31, 1994. Additionally, a 

contribution factor to the extension of the SEC class time period thru 1994 was 

that the internal dosimetry data from 1992 thru 1994 was found not suitable for 

dose reconstruction. 

 NIOSH determined that principal sources of external radiation for members of the 

proposed class included exposures to alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron 

radiation. Exposures could have occurred during waste-handling activities and 

hot cell work. Work with reactors and accelerators also involved exposure 

potential for workers. Samples obtained from blast experiments conducted at the 

Nevada Test Site and analyzed at Sandia National Laboratories-Albuquerque 

could have resulted in external exposure. Additionally, medical X-rays performed 

onsite as a condition of employment would have resulted in external exposures 

to the evaluated class. 

 NIOSH has found that it has access to sufficient information to support 

reconstructing external and medical X-ray dose for all evaluated periods at the 

site. However, NIOSH lacks sufficient information, which includes specific 

biological monitoring data, sufficient air monitoring information, process and 

radiological source information, and surrogate data from similar operations at 

other sites that would allow it to estimate the potential internal radiological 

exposures for all workers who worked at the Sandia National Laboratories in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico during the period from January 1, 1963 through 

December 31, 1994. 

 Based on the findings, NIOSH concluded that it is not feasible to estimate 

internal exposures with sufficient accuracy for all workers at the Sandia National 

Laboratories-Albuquerque site from January 1, 1963 through December 31, 

1994. The basis of this finding demonstrates that NIOSH does not have access 

to sufficient information to estimate either the maximum radiation dose incurred 

by any member of the class or to estimate such radiation doses more precisely 

than a maximum dose estimate for that period. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

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 NIOSH will continue to review and evaluate internal exposure reconstruction 

feasibility for the 1995 through 2011 period when additional and applicable 

monitoring databases become available. If NIOSH finds information indicating 

that doses cannot be bound for the time period from January 1, 1995 through 

May 21, 2011, NIOSH will proceed with an 83.14 petition recommending an 

additional class. 

 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. 

 Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to reconstruct radiation doses for 

the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal and external monitoring 

data that may become available (and that can be interpreted using existing 

NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures) for an individual claim. 

Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at the Sandia National 

Laboratories-Albuquerque facility during the period from January 1, 1963 through 

December 31, 1994, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be 

performed using these data as appropriate. 

 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), the NIOSH Director 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), the 

NIOSH Director 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) The Board and the NIOSH Director 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). 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

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(3) The NIOSH Director concurred with the Board’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). 

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.