Performances of C-BORD’s Tagged Neutron Inspection System for Explosives and Illicit Drugs Detection in Cargo Containers

In the frame of the effective Container inspection at BORDer control points (C-BORD) project [H2020 program of the European Union (EU)], a Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System (RRTNIS) has been developed for a nonintrusive inspection of cargo containers, aiming at explosives and other illicit goods detection. Twenty large-volume NaI detectors are used to determine the elements composing inspected materials from their specific gamma-ray spectra signatures induced by fast neutrons. The RRTNIS inspection is focused on a specific suspect area selected by X-ray radiography. An unfolding algorithm decomposes the energy spectrum of this suspect area on a database of pure element gamma signatures. A classification is then performed between inorganic materials, such as metals, ceramics, or chemicals, and organic materials like wood, fabrics, or plastic goods. Concerning organic materials, the obtained elemental proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen allow discriminating explosives from illicit drugs and benign substances. This article reports on the final laboratory tests performed at Commissariat L'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) Saclay, France, to assess the RRTNIS detection performances before further demonstration tests in a real seaport environment. Simulants of explosives and illicit drugs have been hidden at different depths inside iron or wood cargo materials, which are representative of the different neutron and gamma attenuation properties encountered in real cargo containers. Hundreds of experiments have been performed, showing that a few kilograms of explosives or narcotics can be detected by the RRTNIS in 10-min inspections.