Peripheral collisions with radioactive actinide beams at relativistic energies are proposed as a relevant approach for the study of dissipation in nuclear matter. The characteristics of the systems resulting from the primary fragmentation of such beams are particularly well suited for probing the controversial existence of a sizeable delay in fission. Thanks to the radioactive beam facility at GSI an unusually large set of data involving about 60 secondary unstable projectiles between At and U has been collected under identical conditions. The properties of the set-up enabled the coincident measurement of the atomic number of both fission fragments, permitting a judicious classification of the data. The width of the fission-fragment charge distribution is shown to establish a thermometer at the saddle point which is directly related to the transient delay caused by the friction force. From a comparison with realistic model calculations, the dissipation strength at small deformation and the transient time are inferred. The present strategy is promoted as a complementary approach that avoids some complex problems inherent to conventional techniques. Combined to the paramount size of the data set, it sheds light on contradictory conclusions that have been published in the past. There is at this point no definite consensus on our understanding of the damping process in fission.