Quote:
Originally Posted by dberladyn
You're kidding about that right? Steel and Lead being poisoned? Iron Ore is still mined around the globe, it's very abundant.
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It gets poisoned the moment it's melted. Also, the more it stays in the open air, the more it gets bombarded by everyday natural radiation. Not to mention that ores straight from deposits have slightly higher content of natural isotopes. That's why metals which rested underwater for long periods of time are attractive to scientists.
Since the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, radioactive fallout from such explosions has resulted in contamination of the atmosphere by traces of radioactive elements previously not found there. The process of melting iron to make steel consumes vast quantities of air, leading to the concentration of such trace elements in the final product. Modern, high-sensitivity instrumentation, such as that used for nuclear radiation monitoring, is susceptible to the signal produced even by these trace elements, and requires material free from such contamination for its manufacture.
Lead ingots (used as ballast) from ancient wrecks are used for shielding very sensible cosmic radiation sensors.
Here's an article (albeit in italian, sorry, I'll try to dig up other info)
http://www.infn.it/notiziario/not5/nuclei.html