  At the port-of-entry containers are inspected through a specific sequence of
sensor stations to detect the presence of nuclear materials, biological and
chemical agents, and other illegal cargo. The inspection policy, which includes
the sequence in which sensors are applied and the threshold levels used at the
inspection stations, affects the probability of misclassifying a container as
well as the cost and time spent in inspection. In this paper we consider a
system operating with a Boolean decision function combining station results and
present a multi-objective optimization approach to determine the optimal sensor
arrangement and threshold levels while considering cost and time. The total
cost includes cost incurred by misclassification errors and the total expected
cost of inspection, while the time represents the total expected time a
container spends in the inspection system. An example which applies the
approach in a theoretical inspection system is presented.
