Recent experience in the analysis of postmortem samples for plutonium

Procedures are described for isotopic analysis of large autopsy tissue samples for $sup 239$,$sup 240$Pu and $sup 238$Pu at Hanford. Internal tracers ($sup 242$Pu, $sup 236$Pu) are presently used to measure radiochemical recovery to an accuracy of +- 5 percent. Sample sizes may be up to at least 400g for soft tissues and up to 50g for bone with recoveries of 70 +- 30 percent. Some critical points of the procedure, problems and their solutions are discussed. (auth