I saw a comment the other day that “steel forged before the nuclear age is very valuable.” and talked about the lengths they go to salvage old battleships etc. for steel made “before the Manhattan project.” What does this mean? How did nuclear testing permanently affect steel worldwide?

Question

I saw a comment the other day that “steel forged before the nuclear age is very valuable.” and talked about the lengths they go to salvage old battleships etc. for steel made “before the Manhattan project.” What does this mean? How did nuclear testing permanently affect steel worldwide?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

I see the other comments on low background radioactivity. I argue that it is for use in historic forgeries.

If the steel was worth that much then I wouldn’t know about all of the 1930’s-and-earlier vehicles I know about that are still just sitting. You can argue that they are rusty and need processed to make technical steels but that processing could be done in a noble gas environment.