Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Groundwater Monitoring Network at Pickering Nuclear Generating Station

Through more than 400 wells, tritium leakage of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station has been monitored seasonally since 1999. Sampling and maintenance monitoring wells being costly, it is required limiting number samples while ensuring objectives. This study aims at proposing a geostatistical approach for sample reduction meeting the So, four objectives were defined: (i) Geographical coverage. (ii) Denser sampling where variability high. (iii) Delimiting threshold 300 kBq/L, also (iv) cut-off 3000 kBq/L. These quantified using measures, served as cost functions in heuristic optimization algorithms, implemented scripting capacity Isatis.neo software. The algorithm was successful 2010Q4 (fourth season) according to first, third fourth measures. first measure selects spatially evenly distributed necessary unknown leakages. measures suggest around decisive concentration. Considering these objectives, 22 removed (totally 50 samples) deterioration characterization accuracy negligible. Temporal variogram revealed correlation over three years. So previously acquired could be used improve scarcely sampled areas. But sensitivity analysis showed that older seasons do not current season contamination characterization. conditional applied 2010 (all seasons). Previous improved last measure, deteriorated second