AN award-winning scanner has won Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) developers' nomination for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize.

CSIRO'S scanning technology was nominated on the grounds of innovation to improve national security, reported Perth-based Aircargo Asia-Pacific of Perth.



CSIRO scientists Nick Cutmore, James Tickner, Brian Sowerby and Yi Liu developed the 'Novel Air Cargo Scanner' at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) by combining traditional x-ray technology and neutron beams to look inside heavy cargo containers and identify explosives and drugs.



Nick Cutmore was cited as saying in a report in The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, a Fairfax newspaper in Sydney, that the scanner makes it possible for customs to look inside every piece of cargo regardless of density and therefore would make travel safer and national borders more secure.



"The fact that contraband such as weapons and drugs are still being transported around the world tells us that the means of transport are still available," said Mr Cutmore. "Hopefully, this scanner will eliminate air cargo as one of the means."



The air cargo scanner's use of neutron beams and gamma rays helps to distinguish between metal and organic substances making it a ground-breaking equipment with a commercial future.



China's security company Nuctech begins work on a commercial prototype through "extensive" field trials with CSIRO at Brisbane International Airport later this year, according to both reports.