I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3843 

To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the course 

of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 25, 2004 

Mr. UDALL of Colorado (for himself and Mr. BEAUPREZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and 

in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To better provide for compensation for certain persons injured in the course of employment at the Rocky Flats 

site in Colorado. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rocky Flats Special 

5 Exposure Cohort Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
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1 (1) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

2 Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 

3 7384 et seq.) (hereinafter in this section referred to 

4 as the ‘‘Act’’) was enacted to ensure fairness and eq5 uity for the civilian men and women who, during the 

6 past 50 years, performed duties uniquely related to 

7 the nuclear weapons production and testing pro8 grams of the Department of Energy and its prede9 cessor agencies by establishing a program that would 

10 provide efficient, uniform, and adequate compensa11 tion for beryllium-related health conditions and radi12 ation-related health conditions. 

13 (2) The Act provides a process for consideration 

14 of claims for compensation by individuals who were 

15 employed at relevant times at various locations, but 

16 also included provisions designating employees at 

17 certain other locations as members of a special expo18 sure cohort whose claims are subject to a less-de19 tailed administrative process. 

20 (3) The Act also authorizes the President, upon 

21 recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation 

22 and Worker Health, to designate additional classes 

23 of employees at Department of Energy facilities as 

24 members of the special exposure cohort if the Presi25 dent determines that– 
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1 (A) it is not feasible to estimate with suffi2 cient accuracy the radiation dose that the class 

3 received; and 

4 (B) there is a reasonable likelihood that 

5 the radiation dose may have endangered the 

6 health of members of the class. 

7 (4) It has become evident that it is not feasible 

8 to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation 

9 dose received by employees at the Department of 

10 Energy facility in Colorado known as the Rocky 

11 Flats site for the following reasons: 

12 (A) Many worker exposures were 

13 unmonitored over the lifetime of the plant at 

14 the Rocky Flats site. Even in 2004, a former 

15 worker from the 1950s was monitored under 

16 the former radiation worker program of the De17 partment of Energy and found to have a signifi18 cant internal deposition that had been unde19 tected and unrecorded for more than 50 years. 

20 (B) No lung counter for detecting and 

21 measuring plutonium and americium in the 

22 lungs existed at Rocky Flats until the late 

23 1960s. Without this equipment, the very insol24 uble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be de25 tected, and a large number of workers had in-
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1 halation exposures that went undetected and 

2 unmeasured. 

3 (C) Exposure to neutron radiation was not 

4 monitored until the late 1950s, and most of 

5 those measurements through 1970 have been 

6 found to be in error. In some areas of the plant 

7 the neutron doses were as much as 2 to 10 

8 times as great as the gamma doses received by 

9 workers, but only gamma doses were recorded. 

10 The old neutron films are being re-read, but 

11 those doses have not yet been added to the 

12 workers’ records or been used in the dose recon13 structions for Rocky Flats workers carried out 

14 by the National Institute for Occupational Safe15 ty and Health. 

16 (D) Radiation exposures for many workers 

17 were not measured or were missing and, as a 

18 result, the records are incomplete or estimated 

19 doses were assigned. There are many inaccura20 cies in the exposure records that the Institute 

21 is using to determine whether Rocky Flats 

22 workers qualify for compensation under the 

23 Act. 

24 (E) The model that has been used for dose 

25 reconstruction by the Institute in determining 
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1 whether Rocky Flats workers qualify for com2 pensation under the Act is in error. The default 

3 values used for particle size and solubility of 

4 the internally deposited plutonium in workers 

5 are in error. Use of these erroneous values re6 duces the actual internal doses for claimants by 

7 as much as 3 to 10 times less than the Rocky 

8 Flats records and autopsy data indicate. 

9 (5) Administrative costs related to Rocky Flats 

10 claims have been substantial, but only a few Rocky 

11 Flats cases have been processed. 

12 (6) Some Rocky Flats workers, despite having 

13 worked with tons of plutonium and having known 

14 exposures leading to serious health effects, have 

15 been denied compensation under the Act as a result 

16 of potentially flawed calculations based on records 

17 that are incomplete or in error as well as the use of 

18 incorrect models. 

19 (7) Achieving the purposes of the Act with re20 spect to workers at Rocky Flats is more likely to be 

21 achieved if claims by those workers are subject to 

22 the administrative procedures applicable to members 

23 of the special exposure cohort. 

24 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to revise 

25 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 
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1 Program Act so as to include certain past and present 

2 Rocky Flats workers as members of the special exposure 

3 cohort. 

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF SPECIAL EXPOSURE 

5 COHORT. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3621(14) of the Energy 

7 Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 

8 Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)) is amended by adding 

9 at the end of paragraph (14) the following: 

10 ‘‘(D) The employee was so employed as a 

11 Department of Energy employee or a Depart12 ment of Energy contractor employee for a num13 ber of work days aggregating at least 250 work 

14 days before January 1, 2006, at the Rocky 

15 Flats site in Colorado.’’. 

16 (b) REAPPLICATION.—A claim that an individual 

17 qualifies, by reason of subparagraph (D) of section 

18 3621(14) of that Act (as added by subsection (a)), for 

19 compensation or benefits under that Act shall be consid20 ered for compensation or benefits (notwithstanding any 

21 denial of any other claim for compensation with respect 

22 to that individual). 

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