[sit-rep]

this is actually the first time im hearing of “Low - Background” metals. Am I to assume that digging 300 feet of earth down to iron ore and making new steel will have a contamination of radiation from 70 years ago?? I’m scratchin my head over this one...

[MGG]

I have my encyclopedias when I was little. Very in depth account of the Juneau’s final battle. It was so dark that a Japanese ship got so close that the guys started throwing potatoes at them.

[chrisser]

From Wikipedia:

"Low-background steel is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first atomic bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. With the Trinity test and the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and then subsequent nuclear weapons testing during the early years of the Cold War, background radiation levels increased across the world. Modern steel is contaminated with radionuclides because its production uses atmospheric air. Low background steel is so called because it does not suffer from such nuclear contamination. This steel is used in devices that require the highest sensitivity for detecting radionuclides.

The primary source of low-background steel is ships that were constructed before the Trinity test, most famously the scuttled German World War I battleships in Scapa Flow.[3]"

[Drew68]

Am I to assume that digging 300 feet of earth down to iron ore and making new steel will have a contamination of radiation from 70 years ago?? I’m scratchin my head over this one...

A lot of these ships are in shallow water, 20-80 meters below sea level where it takes little effort to salvage the steel, copper, bronze, and other valuables. Much easier for a small crew to haul up uncontaminated steel plates from 40 meters than mining new ore.