Chemistry - Curious about the chemistry of Carbon-14 after it's produced in the atmosphere

Solution 1:

wikipedia article cites: "After production in the upper atmosphere, the carbon-14 atoms react rapidly to form mostly (about 93%) ¹⁴CO (carbon monoxide), which subsequently oxidizes at a slower rate to form ¹⁴CO₂, radioactive carbon dioxide. The gas mixes rapidly and becomes evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere (the mixing timescale in the order of weeks)."

Solution 2:

The main reaction forming C-14 in the air is the reaction of N-14 with neutrons to form C-14.

I know that if fast neutrons from fission events are allowed to strike a nitrogen nucleous that a very high energy gamma photon (higher than 1.6 MeV) are emitted. Now if we consider for a moment the emission of a gamma photon. We must conserve momentum.

The momentum of a gamma photon is given by planks's constant divided by the wavelength. According to J. M. Hendrie (The Journal of Chemical Physics 22, 1503 (1954); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1740449) to break a N2 molecule into two nitrogen atoms requires about 8.8 eV.

I have calculated the energy of the recoiling atom of C14 which would be for a moment inside a CN radical when the reaction occurs. Thus we will break the molecule up to form carbon atoms.

I imagine that a carbon atom will be able to react with oxygen with ease to form a carbon oxide.