In May 2023, Malaysian authorities detained a Chinese ship that was carrying out illegal salvaging operations in the South China Sea. The ship was said to be looting from the wrecks of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse, which sank during World War Two (WW2) from Japanese air attacks. The area in which the ships sank is now a designated war grave. Among those that were found in the cargo hold of the salvaging vessel, one item stood out: Simple steel.
When we think of “precious metals,” what comes to mind is gold, silver, or platinum. Why would steel, the most commercial and industrial among them, be so sought after? One possible reason is that steel, or more specifically, pre-1945 steel, has surprising worth, and it’s not because antiques sell for more.
When the first atomic bomb was detonated at Los Alamos in New Mexico (see here for our article on that), the explosion released small amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. This background radiation only increased as more nukes were detonated in test sites from Kazakhstan to Australia. The background radiation does no harm to our bodies; in fact, we contain more radiation on average. However, this does affect the most sensitive of radiation measuring equipment, such as Geiger counters. Enter steel, one of the important components of these instruments. Because steel is made by adding oxygen from the air into molten pig iron, each new ingot contains a little bit of radiation, enough to render it unusable in gauging radiation levels. It is like using a metal detector to detect itself.
Going back to the subject of shipwrecks, equipment manufacturers realized long ago that instead of creating steel by utilizing unfiltered oxygen expensively, they could just use steel from the hundreds of sunken ships prior to 1945. For example, scuttled German warships from the end of WW2 have been legally salvaged off the coast of Scotland specifically for the metal. Less scrupulous practices include the aforementioned looting of ships on which hundreds of lives were lost.
Unlike other antiques, low-background steel will actually lose its value with the flow of time. Since the Partial Test Ban Treaty signed by the US, UK, and USSR prohibited above-ground nuclear testing in 1963, background radiation levels have dropped by 95% with the subsequent decrease in such atomic explosions. The latest forged steel can now be used in less sensitive applications, but the necessity still exists for Geiger counters and spacecraft components.
Ultimately, whenever your grandparents mutter about how their bodies just aren’t how they used to be, remind them that, although it may rust, steel lying underwater from WW2 still has value in the highest levels of science, and not just as plain old antiques. Even aged, they still have the capacity to strive to be the best versions of themselves. There is a saying that goes, “old is gold”, but in this instance, it’s more like steel.
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