Monitoring of atmospheric 14CO2 in central European countries

Abstract

Carbon-14 is a radionuclide with global occurrence and partly natural origin. The main anthropogenic sources of the 14C were the nuclear weapon tests, namely at the beginning of the 1960s, nowadays the nuclear energy facilities are the main sources. Maximum in the atmospheric 14C activity was observed in 1963. In the following years the considerable 14C activity decrease was due to intensive carbon deposition into oceanic water and sediments particularly. At present the 14C activity approximates the level before nuclear age, corresponding to ∼0 ‰ Δ 14C. Another actual type of anthropogenic influence is the Suess effect, i.e., the dilution of 14C by fossil carbon (fuel combustion). This effect causes a decrease of the 14C activity on a global, regional and local scale. Thus, monitoring of actual reference level of 14C activity gives a possibility to indicate local or global anthropogenic influences. This paper reporting data from the atmospheric 14CO2 monitoring in the Czech Republic and Hungary compares the actual results with other European countries. The observed effects connected with local and regional CO2 releases from fossil fuel combustion are discussed.