The Little Forest Legacy Site (LFLS) is a low-level radioactive waste site under the control of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). A long-standing, on-going collaboration between ANSTO researchers and UNSW has been investigating the mobilisation of contaminants, waste stabilisation and site remediation evaluation at the LFLS. The LFLS recently underwent major site remediation with an engineered cover placed over the legacy trenches as a means to mitigate the infiltration of rainfall and surface water into the trenches, along with the construction of additional monitoring wells to help assess the success of this intervention and interaction with neighbouring sites. Given the substantial time, effort and cost involved with this mitigation measure, it is essential that its impact on the site be accurately monitored and documented. In addition to understanding how the legacy trenches are themselves altered by the cover installation, the influence of (and on) neighbouring sites, which have also been shown to interact with the LFLS groundwater, will also need to be examined. Although this monitoring and evaluation program has begun, based on the data collected to this point in time, the outcomes and impacts of the site remediation are not expected to become evident until well into 2026. Indeed, it is critical that advanced data analysis methods using pre-cover groundwater data be used to interpret the more limited (i.e. shorter time period) post-cover groundwater data set. This can be achieved through the development of machine learning (ML) algorithms which describe the behaviour of the water levels in different monitoring bores across the site and their response to rainfall.
School
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Area
Contaminated site remediation | Hydrologic data analysis | Machine learning
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
Yes
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
This project will be undertaken under the guidance of Scientia Professor David Waite at UNSW and Dr Tim Payne at ANSTO. While the project will involve analysis of extensive time series of rainfall, water level and water chemistry data using machine learning tools and hydrologic software, it will also involve some field work at the Lucas Heights Legacy Site on the southern outskirts of Sydney.
This project will lead to an improved understanding of the impact of placement of an impermeable cover over a legacy waste site. This improved understanding will be critical to understanding the likely mobility of contaminants at the site and will inform future engineered options for management of the site.
