Non-intrusive inspection of cargo containers using the C-BORD Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System

Abstract

The European H2020 project, entitled “effective Container inspection at BORDer control points” (C-BORD), aims to develop a framework of Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technologies, for containers and large-volume freight at the EU borders. In this article the first results of the field trials of the Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System (RRTNIS) are reported. The tests were carried out at the customs administration of the Netherlands' (DCA) facility in the seaport of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. For the tests mock-up cargo containers were prepared. The containers were analyzed using the whole set of NII subsystems of the C-BORD framework. Each container underwent a session of subsequent scans with all the subsystems, in order to realistically reproduce the normal flow of inspections at the customs facility. The RRTNIS was tested under these realistic conditions, as well. The system was able to separate and identify the target materials, in mock-up containers, and improve the state-of-the-art in terms of the detected quantities.

Integrating Tagged Neutron Inspection with Explainable AI for Threat Material Identification

“…To mitigate these variations, the mean of the three maximum count contributions in the selected region was considered for each element and then converted to weight fractions using the calibration lines, followed by normalization to ensure that the sum of the weight fractions for C, N, and O equals one. The resulting normalized weight fractions were then considered as a point in the CNO barycentric triangle [12,39]. The CNO barycentric triangle illustrates material compositions based on normalized weight fractions of C, N, and O.…”

“…The TNIS con gurations for cargo inspection were further elaborated in 2016 [6], and a nal setup named RRTNIS (Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System) was proposed for cargo inspection in the same year [7] under the C-BORD (effective Container inspection at BORDer control points) project [8]. The details of the RRTNIS detection system in the C-BORD project, including detector types and con gurations, data acquisition system, electronics, and its role in anomaly detection, have been presented in [9][10][11][12]. The RRTNIS has been further developed by funding received from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under ENTRANCE [13] (E cieNT Risk-bAsed iNspection of freight Crossing bordErs without disrupting business) project.…”