Chapter 847 Do you dare to fish?
Xiao Peng looked at the list on the table and tapped the table rhythmically.
"Xiao, what are you thinking about?" Weir asked.
Xiao Peng asked: "What kind of company are we?"
"A company focused on ocean exploration and deep-sea salvage, supplemented by the research and development of new ship technologies!" Weier said, "Xiao, can you be more reliable? The shareholders are watching your every move, and you don't even know what our company does?"
Xiao Peng's face was filled with black lines. "What do you mean you don't know?! What I mean is: since we are a deep-sea salvage company, we should go salvage the sunken ship now!"
"Hmm?" Weier's eyes lit up. "Saving a sunken ship? Do you have a goal? Doesn't this require a lot of research?"
Xiao Peng suddenly asked, "Does the British ship dare to salvage it?"
"Huh?" Weir was confused.
Xiao Peng said, "Weir, you don't understand this. Let me explain. According to international treaties, all warships belong to the country that owns them. In other words, as long as it's confirmed to be a warship, no matter how much wealth is on it, you have to give it to the country that owns it."
Weir nodded and said, "Of course I know that. Germany is a major producer of low-background steel, and Lower Saxony is a major producer of low-background steel. A lot of low-background steel comes from warships. The main raw materials for our production here are German warships from World War II. This is also what the ocean exploration companies that joined our company used to do most: search for shipwrecks as raw materials for steel companies."
Low-background steel, also known as low-radiation steel, is primarily used in radionuclide detection equipment requiring the highest sensitivity, such as Geiger counters for detecting radiation intensity, advanced medical equipment, photonics devices, and aerospace sensors.
Since the first nuclear bomb was detonated in 1945, the Earth's air has been flooded with radioactive elements. Among them, cobalt-60 is the most harmful to steel. This is because the steelmaking process itself has a strong purification capacity, which removes many elements. However, cobalt, as a beneficial element in the steelmaking process, remains in the steel. However, this also poses a certain challenge to high-precision equipment.
It's worth explaining that iron ore isn't contaminated by nuclear elements; it's the air that's contaminated. Steelmaking requires air. Producing low-background steel isn't complicated; simply using the electrolysis of ultrapure water to generate pure oxygen for steelmaking can produce low-background steel. However, this approach is prohibitively expensive.
The simplest approach is to use pre-1945 steel, such as from railroad tracks and shipwrecks. For example, after the USS Indiana, a famous battleship decommissioned during World War II, donated 65 tons of planking to the Virginia Hospital, and another 210 tons to the University of Utah Medical Center for radiation shielding in its laboratories.
The most interesting one is the U.S. Department of Energy's emergency medical facility on Highway 93 in Gold, Jefferson County, Colorado. It was established during the Cold War to prevent a Soviet nuclear strike. Several of the counting rooms were built with pre-World War II steel from walls, floors to ceilings. Some were made of hull steel, and some were made of wheels and axles from scrapped trucks. Now that medical institution has been included in the U.S. National Historic Site List, and you can still see the pure steel counting rooms there.
While it's reasonable to use pre-WWII tanks or other items to produce low-background steel, how can it be as cost-effective as salvaging a shipwreck? Salvaging a single ship can yield tens of thousands of tons of high-quality steel, while salvaging thousands of tanks would require significant manpower and resources, making it uneconomical. Therefore, the consensus among steel manufacturers is that the best source of low-background steel is shipwrecks.
As a major industrial province in Germany, Lower Saxony's steelmaking technology is undoubtedly exceptional: Don't underestimate steelmaking; for nearly every country, specialized steelmaking formulas are considered top secrets. China suffered from this lack of technology, with specialized steel for military use essentially imported from abroad, a significant portion of which came from East Germany.
But when China's technology improved, the situation became different. Take low-background steel for example. China originally did not have this technology and could only buy it at a high price. Later, when China had this technology, the world's largest producer of low-background steel changed hands - there are so many World War II shipwrecks in the South China Sea!
Of course, the price also came down.
China's technological growth rate is truly not to be underestimated. I remember back then, when Chinese public intellectuals used various methods to discredit Chinese technology, the most famous rumor about steel was that China's steelmaking technology was so poor that it couldn't even make the steel balls used in ballpoint pens, and had to import them from Japan.
This incident was widely circulated. In those years, whenever public intellectuals talked about China's steelmaking industry, they would definitely bring up this incident, praising how awesome Japan was and how terrible China was.
To be honest, China's industry started late. Originally, they couldn't even produce a can. It was not until 1983 that the first can production line was built, and it was imported. It was not until 2012 that it was truly fully domestically produced. But at that time, are we still talking about the small steel balls in ballpoint pens?
This infuriated a certain leader, who brought up the issue of the small steel balls during a visit to TISCO. The TISCO staff were also frustrated: "It's not that we can't produce it, it's simply that it's not profitable!" In the end, the discussion came down to whether it was profitable or not, and they just wanted to silence the public intellectuals with a half-pot of the pot!
As a result, ballpoint pen manufacturers around the world collectively changed their business...
Of course, there is still a large market for low-background steel. Any production method will generate profit, provided costs are reduced.
Weier suddenly understood what Xiao Peng meant. "You mean there's a British ship from before World War II that can be salvaged? But it's a warship?"
Xiao Peng smiled bitterly and said, "Which British ship isn't a warship? Every ship has to carry the title 'Royal'! Doesn't that mean it's a warship?"
Weir thought for a moment and said, "It's not worth damaging the relationship between the two countries for a British ship."
Xiao Peng put his index fingers together and said, "What if there are ten ships? Three sailing ships from the Age of Discovery, seven steel ships from before World War II, three civilian cargo ships, two passenger ships, and two transport ships."
After hearing this, Weir looked at Xiao Peng in astonishment.
Xiao Peng nodded at him. "You heard me right. Ten ships. The wealth on them is uncertain. Even if we simply salvage low-cost steel raw materials, we can still make a profit. The problem is that they are all British ships. I believe the British will definitely cause trouble! So the decision to salvage them is up to you. You can hold a board meeting to discuss it first! If you approve, come and ask for the coordinates of the shipwrecks."
"Go to the damn board of directors! Go to the damn Brits!" Weir cursed. "Anyone who doesn't salvage is a grandson! I'll have someone prepare a press conference! Let everyone know how awesome the Salvage King is!"
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