the reason we scavenge steel from old shipwrecks is because all modern peoduced steel is contaminated with a miniscule - but still present - amount of radioactive isotopes, incompatible with some incredibly precise scientific instruments and other nieche, but essential applications, that not only require old steel, but old steel that wasn’t exposed to all the radioactive fallout during the nuclear tests in the cold war, hence why the sunken ships.
adding a personal note here, if some nuclear tests around the world contaminated everything THIS MUCH, what will we say about microplastics in a couple decades? just food for thought
a fun fact about this, by the way
the reason we scavenge steel from old shipwrecks is because all modern peoduced steel is contaminated with a miniscule - but still present - amount of radioactive isotopes, incompatible with some incredibly precise scientific instruments and other nieche, but essential applications, that not only require old steel, but old steel that wasn’t exposed to all the radioactive fallout during the nuclear tests in the cold war, hence why the sunken ships.
wikipedia article
adding a personal note here, if some nuclear tests around the world contaminated everything THIS MUCH, what will we say about microplastics in a couple decades? just food for thought
People have been talking shit about microplastic contamination for a while now…
You can’t see radiation filling up a bird’s stomach. People are, ultimately, very bad about dealing with things we cannot see.