Marine Rag and Bone Men

There is a disturbing report that many of the marine war graves of Asia are being rapidly illegally stripped of the metals (https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/worlds-biggest-grave-robbery-asias-disappearing-ww2-shipwrecks). The graves in question, associated with the remains of hundreds of bodies, are sunken American, Australian, British and Japanese vessels from World War 2. What I did not appreciate is that steel from such ships has increased value as, being produced prior to 1945, is radiation free. The metal is consequently very desirable  for use in the production of Geiger counters and other scientific instruments.