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Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

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(Site Profile/Docket Number 022)

Location: Piketon, Ohio

Also known as: PORTS

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

To date, there are no open/active SEC petitions from Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Class(es) Added to the SEC

  • Gaseous Diffusion Plants – Employees who worked at least 250 days before February 1, 1992, at a gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Kentucky; Portsmouth, Ohio; or Oak Ridge, Tennessee and who were or could have been monitored in those jobs using dosimetry badges

    Note: The SEC was established by The Act. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant was one of the classes that Congress included when The Act was signed.

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.

Below are the Worker Outreach Activities for Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant:

Advisory Board Work Group on Portsmouth, K-25, and Paducah (Gaseous Diffusion Plants/GDP)

This Work Group is responsible for reviewing the Site Profiles for Portsmouth, Paducah, and K-25, and the SC&A reviews of these Site Profiles. It is also responsible for considering issues raised by the Board’s contractor (SC&A) concerning the Site Profiles, 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.

Work Group Members:

  • Paul L. Ziemer, Ph.D. (Chair)

  • Henry A. Anderson, M.D.

  • Josie Beach

  • David Pompa

Meeting Information:

Pre-Decisional Document Policy

Please note that 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

  • Introduction [68 KB (9 pages)]
    Revised February 12, 2007

    Revision Includes: Revised as a result of a biennial review. Updated cover page. Added required standard language to the Purpose section. Added references to the Reference section. Constitutes a total rewrite of document. Incorporates internal and DOL formal review comments. This revision results in no change to the assigned dose and no PER is required.

  • Site Description [352 KB (38 pages)]
    Revised October 4, 2006

    Revision Includes: Revision initiated for biennial review and to incorporate recent direction from NIOSH to include DOL review comments. Revised to change from a page change (Rev 00 PC-1-A) to a revision (Rev 01- A) as a result of worker outreach comments from PACE Local 5-689 and SPFPA Local 66 04/16/2004 meeting. Approved issue of Revision 01. Section 2.3.12 was added to reflect new information on building X-770 facilities. Table 2-15 was also added. Three references were added. Added a Purpose and Scope subsection to the Introduction (Section 2.0). Three references were added. No sections were deleted. No further changes occurred as a result of internal formal review. Incorporates NIOSH formal review comments. This revision results in no change to the assigned dose.

  • Occupational Medical Dose [228 KB (19 pages)]
    Revised April 8, 2013

    Revision Includes: Addresses Sanford Cohen & Associates concerns about the document as identified in SC&A-TR-TASK1-0020, Review of the NIOSH Site Profile for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (see Section 3.3.1). Adds skin doses for all applicable projections and exposure periods. Updates information to conform with revised ORAUT-OTIB-0006, Dose Reconstruction from Occupational Medical X-Ray Procedures. Updates references and added Attributions and Annotations section. Revises information on exposure periods based on recent issuance of ORAUT-OTIB-0079, Guidance on Assigning Occupational X-Ray Dose Under EEOICPA for X-Rays Administered Off Site. Updates pre-1982 X-ray doses, added lumbar spine doses, and added new period for 2010 – present based on new information. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

  • Occupational Environmental Dose [287 KB (26 pages)]
    Revised August 24, 2009

    Revision Includes: Changes were made to the document as per OCAS comments. The Uranium daughter intake values were corrected in Table 4-2. Footnote f was added: “Uranium progeny intakes calculated from recorded or estimated equilibrium fractions with the Uranium parent radionuclides.” Changed the term, “claimant favorable” to “favorable to claimant(s)” as appropriate throughout the document. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments, such as revising wording of footnote “e” in Table 4-2. Equation 4-1 for the geometric standard deviation (GSD) has been deleted along with citations to the GSD in the text and in Table 4-2. This follows ORAUT-PROC-0031 guidance. Deleted Table 4-7 due to the data being limited and not adding value. Revised Section 4.2.3 to provide a better description of the calculations.

  • Occupational Internal Dose [318 KB (26 pages)]
    November 24, 2004

  • Occupational External Dose [881 KB (59 pages)]
    Page Change Revision August 20, 2007

    Revision Includes: Approved page change initiated to clarify information provided in Section 6.3.2.2.1 on page 20 and the application of neutron dose. The need for a PER as stated in Rev. 01 of this TBD is not correct. No PER is required since the method of assigning unmonitored neutron dose remained the same through the previous TBD revisions (i.e. the application of a neutron to photon ratio of 0.2, see Section 6.3.4.2.4). Added NIOSH date reference in Section 6.7 on page 47. Added an Attributions and Annotations section in Section 6.8 on page 48. No further changes occurred as a result of formal internal and NIOSH formal review.

Technical Information Bulletins (TIBs)

Advisory Board and NIOSH Comments and Discussion Papers on Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant 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 has been cleared for distribution.

Public Comments on Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Documents

How to Submit Comments

Comments on Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant 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 (022) on all comments.

Comments Received

Document Archive for Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant