RESUMEN
External doses reconstructed under Part B of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act include not only those that were recorded by personal dosimeters, but also those that were not recorded. Recorded doses may require corrections to account for measurement bias or limitations in the dosimeters' capabilities. Unrecorded doses that have been reconstructed include (1) those missed due to limits of detection associated with personal dosimeters, (2) external ambient doses that may have been inadvertently omitted from the monitoring results (or were not monitored altogether in the case of nonradiation workers), and (3) doses incurred as a result of medical x-ray examinations required by employers. Additionally, some workers were not monitored (or their dosimetry data are not available) even though there was a potential for exposure; doses to such workers are typically assigned based on the records of coworkers who performed the same, or similar, tasks. Additional issues that complicate the dose reconstruction process include the requirements that (1) all external doses must be partitioned according to radiation type and energy, and (2) the accompanying doses to specific body organs must be estimated. Since the external dose reconstruction process typically incorporates many claimant-favorable methodologies, parameters, and assumptions, the doses assigned do not necessarily reflect either realistic or actual estimates of the doses received, and external doses assigned to workers under the Act often are substantially higher than those contained in the dosimetry records.
