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Ames Laboratory

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(Site Profile/Docket Number 079)

Location: Ames, Iowa

Also Known As: Iowa State University

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 currently no open/active SEC petitions from Ames Laboratory.

Class(es) Added to the SEC

  • Ames Laboratory–Department of Energy (DOE) employees or DOE contractor or subcontractor employees who worked at the Ames Laboratory in one or more of the following facilities/locations: Chemistry Annex 1 (also known as “the old women’s gymnasium” and “Little Ankeny”), Chemistry Annex 2, Chemistry Building (also known as “Gilman Hall”), Research Building, or the Metallurgical Building (also known as “Harley Wilhelm Hall”) from January 1, 1942 through December 31, 1954 for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, or in combination with work days within the parameters (excluding aggregate work day requirements) established for one or more classes of employees in the SEC, and who were monitored or should have been monitored.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 38

  • Ames Laboratory–Sheet metal workers, physical plant maintenance and associated support staff (including all maintenance shop personnel), and supervisory staff who were monitored or should have been monitored for potential internal radiation exposures associated with the maintenance and renovation activities of the thorium production areas in Wilhelm Hall (a.k.a. the Metallurgy Building or “Old” Metallurgy Building) at the Ames Laboratory from January 1, 1955, through December 31, 1970, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 75

  • Ames Laboratory–All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and its contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area of the Department of Energy facility at the Ames Laboratory from January 1, 1955 through December 31, 1960, 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 in the Special Exposure Cohort.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 166

  • Ames Laboratory–All Department of Energy (DOE) employees, its predecessor agencies, and its contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area of the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University during the period from August 13, 1942 through December 31, 1970, 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 classes of employees included in the Special Exposure Cohort.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 185

  • Ames Laboratory–All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors or subcontractors who worked in any area of the Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, during the period from January 1, 1971, through December 31, 1989, 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 245

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 Ames Laboratory:

No activities are scheduled at this time.

Advisory Board Work Group on Ames Laboratory

This Work Group is responsible for a review of the Ames Laboratory Site Profile and a review of the Site Profile by the Board’s contractor (SC&A). The Work Group shall consider issues identified by SC&A concerning the Site Profile and shall assist 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:

  • David Kotelchuck, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.I.H. (Chair)

  • Victoria A. Cassano, M.D., M.P.H.

  • Bradley P. Clawson

  • Genevieve S. Roessler, Ph.D.

  • Loretta R. Valerio

Meeting Information:

  • No meetings have been scheduled at this time

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

  • Site Profile for Ames Laboratory [3 MB (78 pages)]
    Revised September 18, 2023

    Revision Includes: Revision initiated to incorporate SEC-00245. Section 1.3 edited to update partial dose reconstruction information and to introduce SEC-00245. Section 4.4 deleted per SEC. Section 5.1.1.4 deleted. Section 5.2 edited to remove thorium intakes prior to 1990 per SEC. Section 5.3.1 updated to present improved example tritium bioassay records. Section 5.3.2 edited to start tritium exposures in 1990 per SEC. Section 5.3.3 deleted to remove tritium unmonitored exposures per SEC. Sections 5.4.1 and 5.4.2 revised to remove fission product intakes per SEC. Summary table edited to incorporate revisions and deletions discussed above. Section 6.3.1 was edited to remove unmonitored doses prior to 1955 per SEC. Section 6.4 edited to extend exposure to organ dose factor to 1985, in line with NVLAP certification. Section 7 was updated to assign A&A citations to current project personnel. Brought into compliance with ORAUT-PROC-0031 as specified during discussions with NIOSH. Section 4.5 updated to include uranium intakes based on residual contamination and subsequent reduction per Battelle-TBD-6000 and ORAUT-OTIB-0070. Thorium ingestion intakes added based on NUREG/CR 6755. Incorporates additional formal NIOSH review comments. Sections 4.1 and 5.1 edited to incorporate environmental uranium intakes as documented in NIOSH Response to SC&A Review of the Ames Site Profile Document Regarding Uranium Internal Exposures white paper. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of a focused revision.

Advisory Board and NIOSH Discussions on Ames Laboratory

The Ames 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.

Program Evaluation Plans (PEPs) and Program Evaluation Reports (PERs)

NIOSH is committed to applying the best available science in dose reconstructions. In keeping with this commitment, completed cases with probabilities of causation less than 50% are reviewed as relevant new information becomes available. The results of these reviews are described in a Program Evaluation Report (PER). The PER details the effect, if any, of the new information on the completed dose reconstruction. If it appears that the new information may result in an increase in dose for a completed dose reconstruction with a probability of causation of less than 50%, NIOSH is committed to working with the Department of Labor to reopen and rework the dose reconstruction, as appropriate. A Program Evaluation Plan (PEP) describes plans for evaluating specific program details or issues.

  • DCAS-PER-037 Rev-0: Revision 3 of the Ames Laboratory Technical Basis Document (ORAU-TKBS-0055) [21 KB (3 pages)]July 17, 2012

    About this Document: Revision 3 of the Ames Laboratory Technical Basis Document (ORAU-TKBS-0055) was issued on 1/3/2012. The previous version (revision 2) was issued on 1/14/2011. Revision 1 was issued 12/18/2009 and Revision 0 PC-1 was issued 8/20/2008. This PER considered the changes that were made between the current revision (revision 3) and all previous versions of the TBD.

    Summary: For the 16 claims requiring further evaluation, dose was recalculated using all current dose reconstruction methods including the current version of the TBD. Only one claim resulted in a probability of causation greater than 50%. NIOSH will notify DOL of these results and request a return of the one case that would now be greater than 50%.

Public Comments on Ames Laboratory Documents

How to Submit Comments

Comments on Ames 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 (079) on all comments.

Comments Received

At this time, no comments have been submitted.

Document Archive for Ames Laboratory

  • Site Profile for Ames Laboratory

    • Revised January 3, 2012 [1.1 MB (90 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Revision initiated to include SEC-00185. Section 1.3.4 was added. Section 1.3 edited to update partial dose reconstruction information and to introduce new SEC. Sections 1.3.1 and 1.3.2 were edited to show inclusion of all workers in those SECs. Expansion of class was inserted in sections of the document as necessary. Section 5.4.1 edited to state environmental doses should be applied to certain Research Building workers. Battelle 2006a was updated to Battelle 2011 and Battelle 2006b was canceled and replaced with other references. Changes were made to several sections and tables in Sections 5.1 and 6.3. Section 6.3.1.2 was updated to reduce missed dose component of beta doses in Table 6-7. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

    • Revised January 14, 2011 [968 KB (87 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Incorporates SEC-00166. Section 1.3.3 and Table 1-3 added. Section 2.1.6 updated to note the end of hot cell operations in the Research Building. Paragraph added in Section 5.0 to discuss SEC-00166. Section 5.1.1.3 updated with internal intake information from SEC-00166. Table 5-4 and 5-8 updated with updated intake rates. Section 5.4.1 updated to remove statement that intakes from the Research Building hot cell would be negligible. Removed A&A point. Added SEC-00166 to the reference section as NIOSH 2010. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

    • Revised December 18, 2009 [1 MB (96 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Approved revision to add LAT chest doses for all periods, skin doses for various parts of the body, and an explanation of terminology. Sections 3.0 and 3.1 were modified as a result of these changes. Tables 3-1 through 3-6 were modified and Tables 3-7 and 3-8 were added. The definition of occupational medical dose was revised and three reference titles were changed. Wording in Section 6.2.1 about external uranium dose was modified. Revision made to add unmonitored doses prior to 1953. Section 6.2.1 reworded to remove OTIB-0004 discussion and add new methodology. Section 6.3.1 was modified to include two eras of unmonitored doses. Figure 6-2 was altered to reflect the new unmonitored dose methodology for doses prior to 1953. Table 5-1 was separated into three tables. Changes were made to Table 5-7 (now 5-8) to clarify and correct intake values. Wording was added to Section 1.3 to caution the Dose Reconstructor on when to label the DR as a partial DR. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite or the document.

    • Revised August 20, 2008 [1.8 MB (87 pages)]

      Page Change Revision Includes: Approved page change revision made to include SEC-00075 on pages 10 and 11 in Section 1.3 where Sections 1.3.1, 1.3.2 and Table 1-2 were added. NIOSH required language was revised on pages 9 and 10 in Section 1.1. Added reference on page 74. Incorporates formal internal review comments. As a result of formal internal review, editorial changes were made on the following pages: 8 in Acronyms and Abbreviations Section; 11 (Table 1-2), 25 (Table 4- 1), 30 (Table 4-2), 32 (Table 4-6), 34 (Table 5-1), 36 (Table 5-2 and 5-3), 48 (Table 5-6), 51 (Table 6-1), in Sections 1.3, 4.2, 4.4, 4.7, 5.0, 5.1, 5.4, and 6.2. SEC changes occurred on pages 11 (Table 1-1), 32, 33, 37-39 (Table 5-4), 40, 41, 46 (Table 5-5), 49 (Table 5-7), 50, 57, 60, 61 (Table 6-4), 63 (Figure 6-2) in Sections 1.3, 4.7, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5, 6.1, and 6.3. Incorporates formal NIOSH review comments on page 2 (Publication Record), 30 (Table 4-2), 41, 48 (Table 5-6), and 74 in Sections 4.4, 5.2, 5.4, and Reference Section. References were updated on pages 10, 11, 19, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 40, 41, 46, 47, 50-52, 57-62, 64, 65, 70, 74-76 in Sections 1.3, 2.3, 4.4, 4.7, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0, and Reference Section. No sections were deleted.

    • Approved June 22, 2007 [1 MB (84 pages)]

  • Ames Laboratory SEC Petition Evaluation Report, Rev. 0 (January 1, 1942 through December 31, 1970) [332 KB (49 pages)]
    June 9, 2011