Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

(Site Profile/Docket Number 086)

Location: Berkeley, California

Also known as: Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, LBL, Radiation Laboratory

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 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Class(es) Added to the SEC

  • All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, from August 13, 1942 through December 31, 1961, 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 160

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.

Advisory Board Work Group on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This Work Group is responsible for reviewing the LBNL Site Profile, the SEC petition from LBNL petitioners, the NIOSH Evaluation Report of the petition, the SC&A Review of the LBNL Site Profile, considering issues raised by the Board’s contractor (SC&A) concerning the Site Profile and the petition 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:

  • Paul L. Ziemer, Ph.D. (Chair)

  • Bradley P. Clawson

  • Arthur Frank, M.D., Ph.D.

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

  • Site Profile for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [1 MB (109 pages)]

    Revised May 10, 2010

    Revision Includes: Incorporates SEC-00160 into Section 1.2. Updated boilerplate language. Incorporates guidance on the assignment of recycled uranium contaminants for intakes based on uranium bioassay results. Incorporates guidance on the assignment of plutonium mixtures for intakes based on plutonium bioassay results. Incorporates additional tritium guidance on the assignment of internal dose from stable metal tritides, and organically bound tritium. Incorporated information from historical documents captured since the last revision about X-ray equipment and exams before 1975, the addition of the LAT chest projection to the X-ray exam protocol in the 1970s, and the addition of the oblique(s) chest projection(s) to the X-ray exam protocol in the 1980s. Added Table 3-1, “Frequency of occupational chest X-ray screening”. Added all the organs to Table 3-2, the table of organ doses for all time periods, and added the organ doses from the LAT and OBL chest projections. Organ doses after 1975 are based on X-ray equipment measurements at LBNL, and decreased slightly from the previous revision as a result of using site specific entrance air kerma in air measurements. Added Table 3-3, “Skin dose guidance for various chest projections and periods”, and Table 3-4, “Skin dose (rem) from various chest projections, 1942 to present”. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

Advisory Board and NIOSH Discussions on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 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 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Documents

How to Submit Comments

Comments on Lawrence Berkeley National 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 (086) on all comments.

Comments Received

At this time, no comments have been submitted.

Document Archive for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Revised April 2, 2007 [600 KB (66 pages)]

    Revision Includes: Includes Task 5 and PID review comments which were omitted from Rev 00. Constitutes a total rewrite of document. Incorporates internal formal review comments and additional NIOSH formal review comments. Attributions and Annotations added. Incorporates internal formal review comments regarding the Attributions and Annotation section only. This revision results in an increase in assigned dose and a PER is required.

  • Approved August 7, 2006 [551 KB (55 pages)]