Thank you all for the great replies!
I am not so sure i can see the security side of this in that over the 30 years of the ship's life 10 000 or more people have worked on, lived on, or visited the ship, so the layout itself is most likly 'known'. On the other hand, being able to take a sample of the alloy might provide some reason for this. Yet that would not expain the subway cars. Thus based on the subway cars, i would suggest it is more practicale/ecconomic than security.
Also, as these things are usually sold for 1$ I would guess it is a headache to get rid of them, and thus is ecconomic. The enviromental benefits are of course very good, but lets face it, very few organizations and governments do enviromentally favourable things without there being an overall beneift to themselves.
Thinking of the point of being in salt water and leaching, while I can see that as reasonable, would there not be a lot more uncertainty in the ore dug up than the ship cut up, thus negating that reason? (not disbelieving, just trying to understand
)
Just did a bit of research and found that steel prices are about $900 a ton, and the MecKenzie was about 2900 tons. So at a very rough guess the steel to build it would cost over 2.5 million dollers. (I know I know, very rough numbers)
I must admit I still find it surprising that it is not ecconomical to recycle it instead of sink it as I sould expect (wrongly it seems) that someone would be willing to pay at least a million for it. Yet even more surprised at how cheap steel is!
All I can see is that it must come down to aspects such as asbestos contamination that make it actually hard to cut up safely, even in India.
No need to worry about offending re comment about scuba divers sitting in train cars having their photo taken, I rather think that is daft too, but perhaps not as much as standing at the end of a runway on a cold damp day to take photos of planes landing.....
Now, as this is an airline forum, I shall redirect it back to that by reitterating the point made above about 787s and such planes becoing artifical reefs when thier life span if over.
Once again, thank you all for your good and informative replies,
TeachMe