Climate Change to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Expanding the spectral ¹⁴CO₂ database for non-AMS Field Measurement Systems

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is well known and universally employed for radiocarbon analysis but is not adaptable to in-situ field measurements limiting applications. 14CO2 is a key tracer for fossil fuel CO2 as well as for release of enriched 14CO2 characteristic of the nuclear fuel cycle with ∆14CO2 values ranging from -1000 to ∼+500 per mil. However, to exploit the full value of in situ 14CO2 data in diverse climate change and nuclear fuel cycle applications, high data rate temporal and spatial field measurement sensors and systems are required. The development of non-AMS methods based on quantum cascade laser, cavity ring down and optogalvanic spectroscopy are emerging applications but not fully developed for field use or widely accepted. Spectral data for lasing transitions for 14CO2 are lacking in contrast to HITRAN data available for 12CO2 (626) and 13CO2 (636) (among other isotopologues 628, 638, etc.) in the spectral databases limiting development and innovation in non-AMS 14CO2 sensors and systems. We review the corpus of 14CO2 spectral data available in the literature and document grating tuned isotopic lasers (e.g., Freed 19901; Bradley et al., 19862), well suited for expanded spectral studies of 14CO2 and inclusion in the HITRAN database. Non-AMS 14CO2 approaches are reviewed with suggestions for future work to support field systems for 14CO2 measurements. Available isotopic lasers for 14CO2 collaborative studies are described.Poster Session I: June 23, 201