[en] A combination of optical, scanning, and analytical electron microscopies have been used to describe the nature of radionuclide contamination at several sites. These investigations were conducted to provide information for remediation efforts. This technique has been used successfully with uranium-contaminated soils from Fernald, OH, and Portsmouth, OH, thorium-contaminated soil from a plant in Tennessee, plutonium-contamination sand from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, and incinerator ash from Los Alamos, NM. Selecting the most suitable method for cleaning a particular site is difficult if the nature of the contamination is not understood. Microscopic characterization allows the most appropriate method to be selected for removing the contamination and can show the effect a particular method is having on the soil. A method of sample preparation has been developed that allows direct comparison of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, enabling characterization of TEM samples to be more representative of the bulk sample