Radition Level from Steel

[Fizza453]

"The Mill Test certificate shall state that the radiation level from the steel
plates is less than 100 beckerels/gram"

Why radiation level is limited?


Nasir
Welding Engineer
DESCON ENGINEERING LIMITED
PAKISTAN

 

[EdStainless]

Because a customer asked for it.
This used to be a big deal in the day of film cameras.
It still is for some instrumentation applications.
I believe that technically there are radiation limits for all material imported into the US or EU.
Though as I recall finding information is very difficult.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[racookpe1978]

For some very unusual applications (like research, ion chambers, X-ray and test facilities) the background radiation from the air borne 1950-1960's test blasts was enough to cause instrument and calibration problems. (So, Russian and Chinese and US and UK and French "dirt" contamination was lifted into the atmosphere, spread around, landed in iron and steel, got recycled and remelted, and is still inside modern steel. Which gets remelted and recycled into more steel.)

Doesn't cause hot "radiation" problems to any real-world users, but it was too much for the sensitivity of what these guys were trying to measure. So they cut up WWII battleship armor plate, melted it separately from ANY other metals (because it had been originally mined and smelted before any fallout landed anywhere) and went off on their merry way.

US Navy and civilian nuclear plant alarms regularly went off from released radiation from Russian and Chinese blasts, so fallout is definitely detectable. Meaningful? Well, radiation is hazardous in too great a quantity, and you CANNOT detect it without special instruments specifically looking for radiation. It's better to have a specification that will (realistically) never be exceeded, but check it anyway; rather than not check it at all and just assume there is no radiation present. A recycled nuclear plant primary pipe WILL contaminate future steels.

 

[EdStainless]

The last case that I recall was cast iron table bases for cafe tables that were made in Mexico.
Apparently some medical radiological devices were included in the scrap when it was melted.
The truckload of these set off the alarms when the truck crossed the boarder.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[weldstan]

Large quantities of stainless steel from India were melted with waste radiological materials and shipped to Germany and other countries several years ago. Could they or another exporter do it again??

 

[BUGGAR]

We decommissioned a lot of "warm" structural steel when we built some new structures at General Atomics (that's why people in La Jolla are beautiful). The old steel was carefully handled and removed first. I don't know where it went - that was secret.

 

[chicopee]

"...So they cut up WWII battleship armor plate, melted it separately..." now that explain the disappearance of all the Liberty ships that were anchored in the Hudson River by Jones Point that I could see in the late 50's from Peekskill.