References

ACPD

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions

ACPD

1680-7375

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acpd-11-14583-2011

Continental-scale enrichment of atmospheric 14CO2 from the nuclear power industry: potential impact on the estimation of fossil fuel-derived CO2

Graven

H. D.

¹ ² Gruber

Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

now at: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego,\newline 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0244, USA

12 05 2011

11 5 14583 14605

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/14583/2011/acpd-11-14583-2011.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/14583/2011/acpd-11-14583-2011.pdf

Since aged carbon in fossil fuel contains no 14C, 14C/C ratios (Δ14C) measured in atmospheric CO2 can be used to estimate CO2 added by combustion and, potentially, provide verification of fossil CO2 emissions calculated using economic inventories. Sources of 14C from nuclear power generation and spent fuel reprocessing can counteract dilution by fossil CO2. Therefore, these nuclear sources can bias observation-based estimates of fossil fuel-derived CO2 if they are not correctly accounted for or included as a source of uncertainty. We estimate annual 14C emissions from each nuclear site in the world and conduct an Eulerian transport modeling study to investigate the continental-scale, steady-state gradients of Δ14C caused by nuclear activities and fossil fuel combustion. Over Europe, North America and East Asia, nuclear enrichment may offset 0–260 % of the fossil fuel dilution in Δ14C, corresponding to potential biases of 0 to −8 ppm in the CO2 attributed to fossil fuel emissions, larger than the bias from respiration in some areas. Growth of 14C emissions increased the potential nuclear bias over 1985–2005. The magnitude of this potential bias is largely independent of the choice of reference station in the context of Eulerian transport and inversion studies, but could potentially be reduced by an appropriate choice of reference station in the context of local-scale assessments.

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