ORAU and its partners have received a $167 million multi-year contract for work that includes radiation dose reconstructions for a federal compensation program that involves certain illnesses and work at sites affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.
ORAU announced the contract in a press release on Wednesday.
ORAU and its partners started work on the original contract in 2002, or 17 years ago. The new contract is for one year with four, one-year options, the press release said.
The contract is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The work will support the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH.
ORAU’s partners are again NV5/Dade Moeller and MJW Technical Services Inc., the press release said.
The work will be performed under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, or EEOICPA.
“We are pleased to be given this opportunity to continue this program that is so very important to the workers and their families,” said Andy Page, ORAU president and chief executive officer. “This contract renewal is a vote of confidence from CDC/NIOSH in our team’s ability to provide a continued high level of quality and commitment to this program.”
Under the terms of the new contract, the ORAU team will help collect data related to claims and petitions, conduct radiation dose reconstruction research, conduct claimant interviews, oversee the Special Exposure Cohort petitioning process, and estimate occupational radiation doses. Results from the completed dose reconstructions are ultimately provided to the claimant and the U.S. Department of Labor for use in adjudicating claims filed under EEOICPA, the press release said.
Since starting work on the original contract in 2002, the press release said, ORAU and its partners have assisted NIOSH in:
- completing and submitting more than 59,000 dose assessments for NIOSH review;
- conducting more than 172,000 interviews with claimants or their survivors throughout all stages of the dose reconstruction process (to gather information or explain dose reconstruction results);
- conducting more than 675 trips to identify and secure relevant data and records;
- assembling and indexing 171,500 documents relevant to DOE facilities into a searchable and retrievable database;
- writing more than 150 SEC petition evaluations reports resulting in the addition of more than 125 SEC classes;
- performing 8.9 million entries into a searchable database for documents containing energy employee-specific information
- matching and linking 176,000 documents with an energy employee’s identifying information to their respective claim;
- completing reviews of 11,900 previous claims based on new data found for energy employees, new site information, or newer technical methods for assessment; and
- publishing more than 900 technical (initial and revisions) documents that collectively reconstruct much of the operational history of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.
Much of the work under the new contract will continue to be conducted from project offices located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team includes health physicists, industrial hygienists, scientists, and support staff from all three partner organizations and from several specialty subcontractors.
The press release said NV5/Dade Moeller is a publicly owned business specializing in occupational and environmental health sciences. MJW Technical Services is a privately owned radiological consulting company that provides professional and technical services to the nuclear industry. ORAU is a nonprofit corporation and federal contractor that manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy, among other tasks.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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