Production of Radiocarbon by Neutron Radiation on Linen

Experiments were performed on modern linen to study the hypothesis that the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud was in error by about 1300 years (the perfect difference of 1292 coming from 1325-33 is misleading because also Nature paper assigns a +/-65 years of uncertainty; in addition we are not sure that Jesus Christ died in 30 AD in 33 AD or, accounting for the errors detected in the Roman calendar, in a different year perhaps also 40 AD) because the Shroud had received neutron radiation that produced contaminant radiocarbon by reactions with nitrogen indigenous to the linen. Measured spatial variations in linen nitrogen content caused radiocarbon age gradients as large as 261 yr-cm-1 for the neutron fluence needed to reduce its radiocarbon age by about 1300 years. Because of these variations and because measurements of radiocarbon and nitrogen contents were destructive, one to one comparisons could not be made between calculated and measured values of radiocarbon. Within this limitation, it was determined that the radiocarbon produced by neutron irradiation was not removed by high temperatures or by the chemical cleaning treatments used in the 1988 tests.