20 Dangerous Artifacts Pulled from Ocean Wrecks

Remember those old watch faces that used to glow in the dark? The glow came from radium-based paint, a radioactive material. Warships sunk during the atomic age, like the USS Saratoga, are covered in instrument dials painted with this stuff. While the radiation is contained underwater, bringing these gauges to the surface for restoration is a serious problem. The concentrated radium-226 paint is still active and has a radiological contamination risk to conservators in the lab.