Environmental science
Environment - Isotopes for understanding environmental processes
Nuclear science, techniques and expertise are helping resolve major Australian environmental challenges, including climate change and water resources. ANSTO has an international reputation for its innovative use of isotopes in understanding climate change and assists governments and communities around Australia with problems involving water usage and flow.
ANSTO's particle accelerators assist the study of the environment, nuclear safeguards, geology, archaeology and palaeontology. They can be used to measure, monitor and characterise air particles to give us accurate pollution reports.
Their cosmogenic isotope dating techniques give accurate models of past climate systems by dating the retreat of glaciers, the age of rocks and how long rocks have been exposed after weathering. Radio-carbon dating is used to examine ocean currents and up-wellings of water from the ocean depths. All these results are of significant use in climate change research, as well as archaeology and palaeontology.
In addition to the accelerator mass spectrometry facilities, ANSTO's ion beam, secondary ion mass spectrometry and deuteration facilities, are used by industry and public sector researchers as well as ANSTO's own researchers.
Research Projects include:
- Characterisation of biomolecules
- Cosmogenic climate archives in the Southern Hemisphere
- Isotopic tracers in atmospheric transport
- Isotopes for water
- Radwaste science
- ANSTO Technologies - Leaders in Analytical Science (ATLAS)
For further information contact:
Institute for Environmental Research
Ph: +61 2 9717 3993