Environment

Challenge: Identify pollution sources from fine (PM2.5) airborneparticles.

Solution: Accelerator-based ion-beam analysis at ANSTO gives us specific pollution ‘fingerprinting.’

Challenge: Understanding the volume, quality and sustainability of groundwater.

Solution: Estimating the groundwater age using natural radioisotopes such as radiocarbon, chlorine-36 and tritium measured on our unique facilities.

Challenge: Assess whether potentially hazardous elements like chromium are in their most dangerous chemical form.

Solution: Synchrotron-based x-ray spectroscopy of soil and biota to determine chemical state without the need for wet chemistry.

Challenge: Understand how flora and fauna hyper-accumulate elements from the environment.

Solution: Rapid synchrotron-based x-ray mapping and/or radiotracer studies of elements in plant and animal tissue.

Challenge: Global understanding of precipitation patterns and how this influences rivers and ground-water requires international scale collaboration.

Solution:  ANSTO has been an active participant in the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) - contributing data since 1960.

Challenge: Even with the best accelerator-based instruments, accurate dating requires complex and careful specimen preparation.

Solution:  ANSTO has the capability to isolate minute quantities of natural radioactive isotopes such as 14C, along with a wide range of man-made radioisotopes from small samples of biota, sediment and water.

Challenge: Rapidly locate and identify radioactive sources at a distance in a  complex environment.

Solution: The CORIS360® imaging system has been developed to superimpose multiple radiation sources on to a visual scene in minutes, minimizing radiation exposure to field workers.

Challenge: Rapid on-site identification of the source of black carbon particle air pollution.

Solution: The MABI (Multi-wavelength Absorption Black-carbon Instrument) is a small portable system that incorporates both concentration and size measurement to help determine the source of carbon particulates in air.

Challenge: using naturally-generated radon gas to track the movement of greenhouse gases and other pollutants over long distances in the atmosphere requires ultra-sensitive instrumentation.

Solution:  ANSTO-designed radon detectors are recognised as world-leading. Our flagship detector at Cape Grim is the most sensitive in the world.

Challenge: Weighing the relative risks of removing undersea gas pipes versus leaving them in place during platform decommissioning.

Solution:  Scientists at ANSTO can provide detailed reports on the risk posed by radioactive and chemical components of undersea pipe-scale to the marine environment.

Challenge: Determining where high-value seafood has been grown and harvested.

Solution:  Using data on the natural isotopic and elemental content of seafood like prawns, ANSTO environmental scientists can help determine where they were grown.

Challenge: Assessing typical environmental contaminants, migration pathways and biota uptake.

Solution: By combining nuclear, x-ray and other spectroscopic techniques on sediment, soil and biota with site characteristics, ANSTO scientists can model past and present environmental impact, migration pathways and bioaccumulation.

Challenge: Develop mine-dewatering plans that optimise efficiency and minimise environmental risk.

Solution: Using our unique suite of capabilities, ANSTO scientists can model water flow and recharge rates, providing a firmer knowledge basis for water management at complex mine sites.

Challenge: Understand how surface and ground water are connected in complex aquifers.

Solution:  Environmental scientists at ANSTO have collaborated with Universities, Industry and Government.  Applying our unique capabilities to  understanding water resource sustainability, climate and the impacts of agriculture, mining and heavy industry.