Contraband detection

Inspecting incoming cargo for drugs, explosives and other contraband would quickly overwhelm inspection agencies even if a small percentage of the cargoes were manually searched. Now a new accelerator-based inspection system using pulsed fast neutron analysis (PFNA) allows automated inspection of loaded cargo containers and trucks. A collimated pulsed beam of fast neutrons, scanned over the side of a cargo container as it passes, excites the nuclei of common elements in bulk materials. The primary signals of interest for contraband are gammaray emissions following inelastic scattering of the fast neutrons from carbon and oxygen. Direct imaging of the contents of the material by time-of-flight analysis identifies the position of the interactions, while gamma-ray spectroscopy identifies the elemental gamma rays. The ratio of elements or other combinations of the elemental signatures are used to identify contraband - a high carbon-to-oxygen ratio, for example, is characteristic of drugs. The system incorporates gamma ray detectors, and analogue and digital processors sort the pulses for position and elemental information. Detection algorithms produce three-dimensional images of possible concealed contraband. From these images the inspector can identify suspicious objects within the cargo container