II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 585 

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

of employment at the Rocky Flats site in Colorado. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 9, 2005 

Mr. SALAZAR introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

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: 

8 (1) The Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

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

10 7384 et seq.) (hereinafter in this section referred to 
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1 as the ‘‘Act’’) was enacted to ensure fairness and eq2 uity for the civilian men and women who, during the 

3 past 50 years, performed duties uniquely related to 

4 the nuclear weapons production and testing pro5 grams of the Department of Energy and its prede6 cessor agencies by establishing a program that would 

7 provide efficient, uniform, and adequate compensa8 tion for beryllium-related health conditions and radi9 ation-related health conditions. 

10 (2) The Act provides a process for consideration 

11 of claims for compensation by individuals who were 

12 employed at relevant times at various locations, but 

13 also included provisions designating employees at 

14 certain other locations as members of a special expo15 sure cohort whose claims are subject to a less-de16 tailed administrative process. 

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

18 recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation 

19 and Worker Health, to designate additional classes 

20 of employees at Department of Energy facilities as 

21 members of the special exposure cohort if the Presi22 dent determines that— 

23 (A) it is not feasible to estimate with suffi24 cient accuracy the radiation dose that the class 

25 received; and 
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1 (B) there is a reasonable likelihood that 

2 the radiation dose may have endangered the 

3 health of members of the class. 

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

5 to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation 

6 dose received by employees at the Department of 

7 Energy facility in Colorado known as the Rocky 

8 Flats site for the following reasons: 

9 (A) Many worker exposures were 

10 unmonitored over the lifetime of the plant at 

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

12 worker from the 1950s was monitored under 

13 the former radiation worker program of the De14 partment of Energy and found to have a signifi15 cant internal deposition that had been unde16 tected and unrecorded for more than 50 years. 

17 (B) No lung counter for detecting and 

18 measuring plutonium and americium in the 

19 lungs existed at Rocky Flats until the late 

20 1960s. Without this equipment, the very insol21 uble oxide forms of plutonium cannot be de22 tected, and a large number of workers had in23 halation exposures that went undetected and 

24 unmeasured. 
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1 (C) Exposure to neutron radiation was not 

2 monitored until the late 1950s, and most of 

3 those measurements through 1970 have been 

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

5 the neutron doses were as much as 2 to 10 

6 times as great as the gamma doses received by 

7 workers, but only gamma doses were recorded. 

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

9 those doses have not yet been added to the 

10 workers’ records or been used in the dose recon11 structions for Rocky Flats workers carried out 

12 by the National Institute for Occupational Safe13 ty and Health. 

14 (D) Radiation exposures for many workers 

15 were not measured or were missing and, as a 

16 result, the records are incomplete or estimated 

17 doses were assigned. There are many inaccura18 cies in the exposure records that the Institute 

19 is using to determine whether Rocky Flats 

20 workers qualify for compensation under the 

21 Act. 

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

23 reconstruction by the Institute in determining 

24 whether Rocky Flats workers qualify for com25 pensation under the Act may be in error. The 
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1 default values used for particle size and solu2 bility of the internally deposited plutonium in 

3 workers are subject to reasonable scientific de4 bate. Use of erroneous values could substan5 tially underestimate the actual internal doses 

6 for claimants. 

7 (5) Some Rocky Flats workers, despite having 

8 worked with tons of plutonium and having known 

9 exposures leading to serious health effects, have 

10 been denied compensation under the Act as a result 

11 of potentially flawed calculations based on records 

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

13 potentially flawed models. 

14 (6) Achieving the purposes of the Act with re15 spect to workers at Rocky Flats is more likely to be 

16 achieved if claims by those workers are subject to 

17 the administrative procedures applicable to members 

18 of the special exposure cohort. 

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

20 the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 

21 Program Act so as to include certain past and present 

22 Rocky Flats workers as members of the special exposure 

23 cohort. 
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1 SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF SPECIAL EXPOSURE 

2 COHORT. 

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

4 Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program 

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

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

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

8 Department of Energy employee or a Depart9 ment of Energy contractor employee for a num10 ber of work days aggregating at least 250 work 

11 days before January 1, 2006, at the Rocky 

12 Flats site in Colorado.’’. 

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

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

15 3621(14) of that Act (as added by subsection (a)), for 

16 compensation or benefits under that Act shall be consid17 ered for compensation or benefits, notwithstanding any de18 nial of any other claim for compensation with respect to 

19 that individual. 

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