Radiation Dose Reconstruction

ORAU Supports National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Dose Reconstruction for Former Energy Employees

Through a contract with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and its partners, MJW Corporation Inc. (MJW) and Dade Moeller & Associates are helping to ensure that all energy employees who deserve compensation for their illnesses are rightfully compensated.

Under a five-year contract awarded in September 2002, and extended several times since, the ORAU team is reconstructing the radiation doses received by workers at various Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE contractor facilities. The information will assist NIOSH in fulfilling its responsibilities under the U.S. Department of Labor's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

A team that exceeded 400 employees built a solid infrastructure that allowed quick reconstruction of the doses, cleared a sizable backlog of cases, and moved the dose reconstruction program into a steady-state mode. Components of the process have included:

• Site profiles for 40 of the major DOE sites, including detailed descriptions of radiation exposure conditions
• Establishment of a worker outreach program to present information in the site profiles and solicit input from the workers
• Phone interviews with tens of thousands of workers, coworkers, and family members
• Individual dose reconstructions

The ORAU team is also responsible for the evaluation of Special Exposure Cohort petitions received by NIOSH. This process may automatically grant compensation to employees with any of 22 types of cancer and who worked at specific sites. These claimants would not have to go through the dose reconstruction process in order to be compensated.

ORAU and its partners, as well as personnel from NIOSH contributed 16 papers on the NIOSH Dose Reconstruction project to a special issue of Health Physics: The Radiation Safety Journal, July 2008. The journal is the main publication of the Health Physics Society.

Visit the ORAU Team Dose Reconstruction Project for NIOSH site for more details on this program.