Illegal Shipbreakers Steal Prewar Steel

In recent decades, illegal salvors have targeted old shipwrecks that predate nuclear testing, cutting them apart to sell steel that is free of atmospheric radiation. World War II wrecks in Asian waters, including the Java Sea, have been stripped or completely removed by scrap crews posing as fishermen or research vessels, using barges, cranes, and heavy gear to lift metal from the seabed. Pre-1942 hulls contain low background steel that avoided the fallout added to the atmosphere by mid twentieth century nuclear tests, which makes the metal valuable for certain scientific and nuclear uses.

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