NIOSH Radiation Dose Reconstruction Project
Since its inception in 2002, the NIOSH Radiation Dose Reconstruction Project has become one of the most important workers’ compensation programs in the United States. From the beginning, NIOSH has tasked the ORAU Team—led by ORAU and including NV5/Dade Moeller and MJW Technical Services, Inc.—with reconstructing radiation doses for current and former workers of DOE and atomic weapons employers.
The radiation dose reconstructions provide critical information used in adjudicating claims filed under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the program helps ensure that energy workers who developed cancers from occupational radiation exposures—or surviving family members—are rightfully compensated for their illnesses.
Health physicists, records specialists, and other scientists from the ORAU Team have interviewed thousands of claimants, researched records and historical documents, and generated searchable databases to reconstruct the dose history to provide more than 66,000 preliminary radiation dose assessments.
In addition, the ORAU Team evaluates Special Exposure Cohort petitions received by NIOSH, which may automatically grant compensation to employees who have any of 22 types of cancer and who worked at specific sites. Of the 260 SEC petitions received, 153 have qualified for evaluation resulting in the addition of more than 118 SEC classes.
Since starting work on the original contract in 2002, ORAU and its partners have assisted NIOSH in:
| Completed and submitted more than 66,000 dose assessments (preliminary and revised) for NIOSH review |
| Conducted more than 192,000 interviews with claimants or their survivors throughout all stages of the dose reconstruction process (to gather information or explain dose reconstruction results) |
| Conducted more than 730 trips to identify and secure relevant data and records |
| Assembled and indexed more than 182,500 documents relevant to DOE facilities into a searchable and retrievable database |
| Performed 15.3M entries into a searchable database for documents containing energy employee-specific information |
| Matched and linked more than 1.3M documents with an energy employee’s identifying information to their respective claim |
| Completed reviews of more than 15,700 previous claims based on new data found for energy employees, new site information or newer technical methods for assessment |
| Published more than 990 technical (initial and revisions) documents that collectively reconstruct much of the operational history of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex |
| Supported NIOSH at 600 meetings (board, subcommittee, work group) of the Advisory Board for Radiation and Worker Health |
