# Cookware radioactive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244 "2013-09-19T17:02:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/1 "2013-09-19T17:02:54Z")
Today’s archive (Is red Fiestaware radioactive) reminds me of my paranoid colleague who won’t buy a pot. His reasoning goes like this: 1. Some years ago, China bought a whole lot of steel that had been scavenged from closed nuclear reactor. (I guess that’s a fact.) 2. This steel was highly radioactive. (Makes sense.) 3. Virtually all cookware in the stores is, like everything else, imported from China. (Largely true.) 4. They are probably selling us back the radioactive steel in various forms, including pots. (Any possibility that this is true? Without anyone noticing? Or pure paranoia?) What’s the straight dope on this? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/2 "2013-09-19T17:04:40Z")
If you have a tin foil hat and don’t have a geiger counter, you’re a _poseur_. Have your friend go shopping with you and measure the pots. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/3 "2013-09-19T17:08:41Z")
One would think that the supply of tainted steel would be used up by now… But, yes, it’s theoretically possible. The same thing happened in Mexico. Most of the radioactive steel ended up in [rebar](http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/accidents/juarez.htm). Maybe he should buy aluminum or copper pots… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/4 "2013-09-19T17:16:16Z")
Not possible, at least not since 2003. Cargo containers are screened for radiactivity at all US ports. You could certainly sneak in a few radioactive pots, [and some products have snuck into the supply chain](http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2017827107_radioactivescrap25.html), but avoiding all pots is goofy. Anyway, the amount of radiation would be attenuated by mixing the old steel with new. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/5 "2013-09-19T18:28:42Z")
It’s all slightly radioactive due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1940s-1960s. For making radiation detectors and other radiologically sensitive equipment, steel from pre-1945 sources is used- primarily old naval vessels. > **[Low-background steel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel)** > > Low-background steel, also known as pre-war steel, is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. Typically sourced from ships (either as part of regular scrapping or shipwrecks) and other steel artifacts of this era, it is often used for modern particle detectors because more modern steel is contaminated with traces of nuclear fallout. > Since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing, background radiation has decreased to very near natural levels, m... ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/6 "2013-09-19T20:02:45Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It’s all slightly radioactive due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1940s-1960s. > > For making radiation detectors and other radiologically sensitive equipment, steel from pre-1945 sources is used- primarily old naval vessels. > > [Low-background steel - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel) Very neat. The Wiki link mentions that they’re even using steel from the [German ships scuttled at Scapa Flow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_of_the_German_fleet_in_Scapa_Flow). Ain’t that something? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/7 "2013-09-19T22:46:43Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > If you have a tin foil hat and don’t have a geiger counter, you’re a _poseur_. Have your friend go shopping with you and measure the pots. Believe it or not, we even priced geiger counters. The cost (a couple hundred bucks he was not willing to spend). I certainly won’t. He’s not quite tin hat. He is not a conspiracy theorist and has never suggested they are doing anything besides reading his email. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/9 "2013-10-15T06:34:11Z")
[”A little extra radiation might be good for you.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aepiAf1a8) (Deliberately slightly misquoted for rhetorical effect.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/10 "2013-10-15T07:41:00Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Not possible, at least not since 2003. Cargo containers are screened for radiactivity at all US ports. That’s what I was thinking. A shipload of pots and pans wouldn’t have any special shielding. So you’d think somebody would take notice if a boatload of radioactive material showed up at some American port. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/11 "2013-10-15T10:32:59Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > One would think that the supply of tainted steel would be used up by now… > > But, yes, it’s theoretically possible. The same thing happened in Mexico. Most of the radioactive steel ended up in [rebar](http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/accidents/juarez.htm). > > Maybe he should buy aluminum or copper pots… And was only spotted because a load of it accidentally showed up at Los Alamos, of all places. That kind of coincidence suggests to me that there is probably quite a lot more radioactive steel around that doesn’t get spotted. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cookware-radioactive/669244/12 "2013-10-15T17:28:21Z")
Some neutrino experiments can’t even settle for 20th-century scuttled ships: They use shielding made from the lead ballasts of sunken Spanish galleons. There, they’re not just worried about background from nuke detonations, but from cosmic rays.