Summary of Method

U, Pu, Am and Cm are separated and concentrated from 5-10 gram vegetation samples. Samples are muffled in zirconium crucibles 2-4 hours to destroy organic content. The residue is wet ashed with HNO3-H2O2 and then fused with 15g NaOH at 600oC for ten minutes. The fusion cakes are dissolved in water, transferred to 250mL centrifuge tubes and precipitated twice to facilitate matrix removal. Actinides are separated on stacked 2mL cartridges of Eichrom TEVA, TRU and DGA resins. Actinides are measured by alpha spectrometry following CeF3 microprecipitation onto Eichrom Resolve® Filters. Chemical yields of tracers ranged from 90-101% for 242Pu, 84-93% for 243Am, and 81-87% for 232U. Measured values agreed to within 1-3% of reference values for Pu isotopes, 3-9% for Am and Cm isotopes, and 2-15% for U isotopes for 16 hour count times. A single operator can prepare batches of 12 samples for the measurement of actinides in less than 8 hours.