NSRL works in collaboration with AMS measurement facilities to provide state-of-the-art radiocarbon preparation and measurement services to the local University and Federal research communities and pursues in-house research on applications of ¹⁴C dating to climate change studies, calibration of the ¹⁴C timescale, and the use of ¹⁴C as a geochemical and geophysical tracer in the Earth system.

NSRL maintains an active collaboration with the NOAA’s Boulder-based Global Monitoring Division (GMD) aimed at development and use of ultra-precise ¹⁴C measurement in CO₂ as a quantitative tracer for recently-added, fossil fuel derived CO₂ in the atmosphere.