[ RadSafe ] Request for Assistance

[Jim Hardeman]

Colleagues --

Last week I received a request from assistance from an author here in
Georgia (USA) for technical advice on a novel he's writing.

In the author's words, the novel "involves a nuclear medicine department in
a British hospital in 1983.  My antagonist, a hospital electrician, is
blackmailed into stealing nuclear material (to supplement other materials
for a dirty bomb).  The idea is to contaminate a deactivated airbase so the
USAF cannot deploy a new nuclear missile weapon system there.

The nuclear medicine department I have created in this fictional hospital,
is relatively new (less than six years old) and doing both imaging and
treatments, to include a hot bench/lab.  I understand a hospital nuclear
medicine department in Britain may have been some different from those in
the US at that time, but I want to be as accurate as possible in my
manuscript and will let a British editor ferret out any small
differences.  Plus,
since there is and will be (at this point) some uncertainty, I would rather
err on the side of  caution, and not be too lax in my security."

Is there anyone on the list who might wish to assist this author and who
might have direct knowledge that would be relevant?

Please contact the author, Fred Whitson, directly at whitsonwf at aol.com --
please don't contact me.

Thanks!

Jim Hardeman
Georgia Environmental Protection Division (retired)
Atlanta, GA
jim.hardeman at gmail.com