How do you battle test a RAD prototype? Stick it in microwave like device with ionizing radiation and see how many bit-flips occur?
After a few minutes of awkward shock and denying all involvement, we realized it was a colleague at the same research institute (and of the same name). He was, one building down, doing his PhD research on radiation hardened detectors for the CMS experiment at CERN(1). He was using the source for the testing. But I had a minute of real stress before that came together in my mind...
(1) I think this was his work: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pssa.2007763...