Plutonium in a grassland ecosystem

This chapter is primarily concerned with plutonium contamination of grassland at the US Department of Energy Rocky Flats plant, which is located northwest of Denver, CO. Major topics include the definition of major plutonium-containing ecosystem compartments; the relative amounts in those compartments; whether or not the predominant isotopes, 238Pu and 239Pu, behaved differently; and what mechanisms might have allowed for the observed patterns of contamination. Samples of soil, litter, vegetation, arthropods, and small mammals were collected for plutonium analysis and mass determination