Until recently, steel used for scientific and medical purposes had to be sourced from sunken battleships, as any steel produced after 1945 was contaminated with radiation.

One of the most significant sources of this low-background radiation steel is the sunken German fleet at Scapa Flow. At the end of World War I, following Germany's capitulation, the majority of the remaining ships in the German Imperial Navy were sailed to Scapa Flow, a natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. There, the German sailors were held while the Versailles Treaty negotiations determined the fate of their ships. However, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, refusing to see the fleet divided among the Allies, orchestrated the scuttling of the ships, in defiance of the armistice agreement.

Ironically, these sunken ships have proven more valuable as wrecks than they would have been as military assets. By the time World War II began, the ships were already obsolete, and had they been allocated to Italy and France, they would likely have been used by the Axis powers.

Today, these wrecks are popular diving spots and serve as a crucial source of low-background radiation steel. Additionally, there is an added benefit to salvaging these wrecks, as they do not contain human remains. This avoids the ethical dilemmas often associated with recovering material from shipwrecks that are also grave sites.