[ RadSafe ] Request for Assistance

dlawrencenewyork at aol.com dlawrencenewyork at aol.com
Wed Jul 3 06:32:08 CDT 2013


That should have been Sr-90 or Pu-239 for those batteries!



-----Original Message-----
From: Dlawrencenewyork <dlawrencenewyork at aol.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Wed, Jul 3, 2013 7:05 am
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Request for Assistance


I would have them either scavenge Cs-137 from a the master source stored in a 
well in a former source manufacturing facility using New Mexico as sexy backdrop 
(think aliens!), but the old Radium source vault of the closed Radium Chemical 
Company of Queens NY comes to mind as a fairly unsecured and more probable 
location for that era. You could have backed a van up and been on the BQE with 
their inventory in minutes. Th-232 with its DAC would also make a suitable 
candidate and for that you could imagine US Radium in E Orange NJ. Bear in mind 
that these are for perceived injury and not actual death devices.  Never mind 
that you could also conjure up myriad visions of old Soviet unsecured stockpiles 
(think CS-137 batteries).

Best Regards,
David Lawrence
646-246-3465


On Jul 1, 2013, at 5:20 PM, Jim Hardeman <jim.hardeman at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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