[vmelkon]

I was wondering what would happen if Carbon 12 was hit by an alpha particle, what would the reaction be?
Is it C12 + alpha = O15 + neutron

and then O15 = N15(stable) + positron + neutrino

Because if you have carbon underground where rocks contain trace amounts of radioactive isotopes giving off alpha, then you get some neutron production.
If this happens
C13 + neutron = C14

then carbon testing would show that a sample is younger than it is actually suppose to be.

[Enthalpy]

Alpha and ¹²C are both very stable.
Did you check if a few MeV from radioactivity suffice to make the proposed reaction possible?

Chances for neutron production look less bad with beryllium or lithium mixed with your source of alpha, or by spontaneous fission of uranium.

[vmelkon]

I was not able to find any information about it, so I do not know if the reaction emits a neutron.
Also, the thread is from 2011, but thanks for the reply.