Capacity and quality effects from installing radiation detection equipment at the land access of a container terminal

Abstract

The tragic events of 2001/9/11 threw the United States into a state of anti-terrorism war. From that moment onwards multiple acts, laws and regulations have been approved not only in the US but worldwide aiming to regulate the security in the border inspections. Its goal: preventing any hazardous or even suspicious material from crossing the border of the country. This paper deals with the effects of installing scanning facilities in an already operating seaport terminal, and assesses what would the best number and placement of the equipment in terms of cost and quality of the service provided. The assessment is conducted by means of a simulation model of the delivery and receipt process of the terminal where different scenarios have been introduced, depending on the scanners performance as well as whether complimentary buffer areas are used or not in order to balance (or attenuate) the truck arrivals at the terminal. The model and scenarios are conducted using data from a real semiautomatic terminal in Barcelona in its construction stage.