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Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

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(Site Profile/Docket Number 069)

Location: Ventura County, California

Also Known As: Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC), Liquid Metal Engineering Center (LMEC), Nuclear Development Field Laboratory (NDFL)

Special Exposure Cohort Petition Information

The Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) is a unique category of employees established by the Act (42 CFR Part 83). Claims compensated under the SEC do not have to go through the dose reconstruction process. To qualify for compensation under the SEC, a covered employee must meet specific requirements (e.g., must have at least one of 22 “specified cancers,” and have worked for a specified time period at one of the SEC sites). Classes of employees and work sites can be considered for addition to the SEC through a NIOSH petition process. More information about the Special Exposure Cohort can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Open/Active SEC Petitions

There are two open/active SEC petitions from Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (Petition 93 and Petition 235). For Petition 235, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health has received the SEC Petition Evaluation Report from NIOSH, will review it, and will send its recommendation(s) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Class(es) Added to the SEC

  • All employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, and DOE contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area of Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days from January 1, 1955 through December 31, 1958, or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the SEC.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 93

  • All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area of Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory from January 1, 1959 through December 31, 1964, 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.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 156

  • All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area at Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, California, from January 1, 1965, through December 31, 1988, 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.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 234

Petitions Qualified for Evaluation

Below is a list of the petitions that qualified for evaluation. Select a petition on the list to view the table for that particular petition.

Worker Outreach Activities

Based on a recommendation from the Advisory Board to provide workers and site experts with opportunities to participate in developing the technical documents used in dose reconstruction, NIOSH established a Worker Outreach Program.

At Worker Outreach Meetings, current and former DOE and AWE employees have opportunities to obtain information about Site Profiles, Technical Basis Documents, and Technical Information Bulletins, and to provide information for consideration and possible use in dose reconstruction. This process is valuable to ensure that the technical documents used in dose reconstruction contain correct and useful information.

Worker Outreach Activities for the Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory:

Advisory Board Work Group on Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and De Soto Avenue Facility

This Work Group is responsible reviewing the SEC petition from the Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and De Soto Avenue Facility petitioners, reviewing the NIOSH Evaluation Report of the petition, considering issues that may be raised by the Board’s contractor (SC&A) concerning the NIOSH Evaluation Report, and for assisting NIOSH and SC&A in the resolution of such issues. The Work Group may recommend to the Board, changes in the Site Profile as appropriate. The Work Group should strive to develop a recommendation to the Board on whether a class should be added to the SEC.

Work Group Members:

  • Henry A. Anderson, M.D. (Chair)

  • Josie Beach

  • Nicole E. Martinez, Ph.D.

Meeting Information:

Pre-Decisional Document Policy

Please Note: As part of the procedures and processes of the Advisory Board’s Work Groups, several kinds of pre-decisional documents may be developed. These pre-decisional documents, such as white papers, matrices, working drafts, etc., are distributed among Work Group members as research and background tools to facilitate discussion and deliberation. Although discussion during a public meeting may cover pre-decisional documents, these documents often are not further revised or finalized, and thus do not reflect the final determination or evaluation of the Advisory Board and its Work Groups. Additionally, some pre-decisional documents not otherwise posted on the website may contain sensitive information, which would require an interested party to obtain such documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CDC/ATSDR FOIA Office at FOIARequests@cdc.gov.

Technical Documents

If the energy employee’s personal radiation information is incomplete, NIOSH will use other sources to estimate the radiation dose. This may involve using technical documents called Site Profiles, Technical Basis Documents, and Technical Information Bulletins.

Site Profile

Note: The Site Profile below can be used to complete dose reconstructions for Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the Canoga Avenue Facility (Vanowen Building), the Downey Facility, and the De Soto Avenue Facility (these are sometimes referred to as Energy Technology Engineering Center [ETEC] or Atomics International).

  • Introduction [64 KB (8 pages)]
    Revised August 30, 2006

    Revision Includes: Revision to change site name to Atomics International throughout document in keeping with revised DOE site naming conventions. Approved issue of Revision 01. Added information to Site Description in Section 1.2.1 on page 6. No further changes occurred as a result of formal internal review. Incorporates NIOSH formal review comments. This revision results in no change to the assigned dose.

  • Site Description [1.2 MB (47 pages)]
    Approved February 2, 2006

  • Occupational Medical Dose [184 KB (25 pages)]
    Revised October 31, 2008

    Revision Includes: Revision to change the site name to Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the Canoga Avenue Facility, the Downey Facility, and the De Soto Avenue Facility (sometimes referred to as Energy Technology Engineering Center [ETEC] or Atomics International) to match the new DOE site naming conventions. Added Attributions and Annotations section. Organ doses are revised as follows:

    • AP lumbar spine, before 1971, uterine dose is decreased by a factor of 10; correcting an error,

    • AP and LAT lumbar spine, after 1997, except for breast and remainder, all organ doses are marginally decreased due to a change in beam quality assumption,

    • AP and LAT lumbar spine, all years, remainder organ dose is increased by a factor ranging from 2 to 15 due to a change in the reference organ used to define the remainder.

    • Doses to skin at additional locations to the primary beam entrance are added in accordance with Revision 01 of ORAUT-PROC-0031. All skin doses at newly tabulated locations are lower than the skin dose at the primary beam entrance location. Maximum organ dose tables for PA and LAT chest, and AP and LAT lumbar spine, are deleted in accordance with Revision 01 of ORAUT-PROC-0031. A discrepancy between the dose tables and the text is corrected. The corrected frequency is lower to ensure any misunderstanding due to the discrepancy that would result in a favorable to claimant dose assessment. Text in Section 3.5.1.2 about examination frequency is relocated to Section 3.4 where it logically belongs.

    • Breast doses from AP lumbar spine projections for periods after 1971 are increased by a factor 2.2 to 2.6. For the LAT lumbar spine projections the breast dose increases range from no change, up to a factor of 1.1. The increase results from a change in the assumed dose conversion factors recommended by the Principal Medical Dosimetrist.

    • The term “view” is globally replaced with the more modern term “projection” and the term Entrance Skin Exposure (ESE) is replaced by the more modern term “entrance air kerma.” The term “routine” when describing examination frequency is replaced by the more descriptive word “periodic.” The terms “entrance” and “exit” in Tables 3-2 through 3-5 are replaced with “pre-employment” and “termination.”

    • Additional information on eye/brain organ doses prior to 1971 is added to Tables 3-2 and 3-3. The column showing entrance skin exposure in Table 3-2 through 3-5 is eliminated as this is not needed for dose reconstruction.

    • The possibility that photon energy could be less than 30 keV is eliminated as this is applicable only to mammography. Testes dose in Table 3-5 associated with LAT lumbar spine exposures after 1997 decreases by 60% as a data error in the DCF is corrected.

    • The description of skin doses has been modified to match that in newly issued guidance, and skin dose tables have been separated into two each for clarity in describing doses under poorly collimated versus well collimated exposure conditions.

    • Incorporates formal NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

  • Occupational Environmental Dose [278 KB (23 pages)]
    Revision Includes: Incorporates SEC information in Section 4.1 and formal internal and NIOSH review comments.

  • Occupational Internal Dose [1.5 MB (82 pages)]
    Revised April 26, 2010

    Revision Includes: Revision to change the site name to Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the Canoga Avenue Facility, the Downey Facility, and the De Soto Avenue Facility (sometimes referred to as Energy Technology Engineering Center [ETEC] or Atomics International. Updated required language in Section 5.1. Additional information added on the solubility of uranium aluminide and sensitivity of bioassay analyses. Added Attachment G, Sensitivity of Bioassay Analyses by Bioassay Code U. S. Testing and Other Laboratories. Acronyms added for ICRP, kCi, kg, mo, POC, TTF, wk, µCi, µm, and §. Changes are being made to Section 5.1.3, Scope, as requested by DOL to clarify which organizations performed work eligible for compensation. Reporting levels and MDAs were adjusted in Table 5-3 for NSEC. A paragraph was deleted from Section 5.2, Internal Dosimetry Overview. The abbreviation “UR” for uranium radiometric was added to Section 5.3.1.3. Last paragraph of Section 5.3.1.4 was modified to clarify the sensitivity (reporting level) vs. MDA. The numbers and order in the documents for tables 5-7 and 5-8 were switched. An additional footnote was added to Table 5-9. Minor changes were made to the references and glossary. A list of figures was added to Attachment B. The figures and descriptions in Attachment A were reordered, the descriptions of two forms were combined, and in some cases descriptions were added to the same page as the figures. Attachment D was split into two attachments (D and E) and the original attachments E and F were re-lettered to F and G. The Table in Attachment G was split into in-vitro and in-vivo tables. Numerous minor edits were also made to clarify or improve the readability of the document without changing the technical content. Added Attributions and Annotations section. Activity fractions for reactors and related facilities were eliminated and references to OTIB-0054 were added. Added SEC information and added information in Section 5.3.1.5 pertaining to the use of CEP data. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of document.

  • Occupational External Dose [176 KB (20 pages)]
    Revised April 26, 2010

    Revision Includes: Incorporates SEC information in Section 6.1.2 and corrected an error in Table 6-8 pertaining to NTA film and footnote b. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments.

Technical Information Bulletins (TIBs)

Advisory Board and NIOSH Discussions on Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory discussion papers listed below are working documents prepared by NIOSH or its contractor for use in discussions with the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health or its Working Groups or Subcommittees. Draft, preliminary, interim, and white paper documents are not final NIOSH or Advisory Board (or their technical support and review contractors) positions unless specifically marked as such. These documents represent preliminary positions taken on technical issues prepared by NIOSH or its contractor.

The discussion papers have been reviewed to identify and redact any information that is protected by the Privacy Act 5 USC §552a and have been cleared for distribution.

Public Comments on Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Documents

How to Submit Comments

Comments on Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Documents can be submitted to the NIOSH Docket Officer electronically by email at nioshdocket@cdc.gov or printed comments can be mailed to:

NIOSH Docket Office
Robert A. Taft Laboratories, MS-C34
1090 Tusculum Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45226
Please include the Site Profile/Docket Number (069) on all comments.

Comments Received

Document Archive for Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Advisory Board and NIOSH Discussions on Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Document Archive

Site Profile Document Archive

Technical Information Bulletins (TIBs) Document Archive