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Transuranium nuclides, including a considerable amount of 241 Pu, were released in the Chernobyl explosion.Plutonium was separated from lichen and peat samples by coprecipitation and anion exchange. A portion of the separated Pu fraction was taken for measurement of 241 Pu with a low-background liquid scintillation counter, Quantulus 1220, equipped with a pulse shape analyser. The detection limit for 241 Pu was 0.007 Bq with a counting time of 600 minutes.The plutonium-241 concentrations of the peat samples varied between < 3 and 430 Bq m~2 in Southern Finland. The radioactivity ratio of 241 Pu to 239.240^ in the fallout from Chernobyl was 94.8. The fallout pattern of 241 Pu resembles the patterns of other refractory nuclides, 95 Zr and 141 Ce. The concentrations in lichen samples collected from regions of heaviest deposition were comparable to those of the heaviest weapons test fallout in the early 1960's.

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