A new project funded by the European Union is looking for illicit bomb manufacturing sites by detecting certain chemicals used to make explosives when they are flushed into the urban sewer system.

A new project funded by the European Union is looking for illicit bomb manufacturing sites by detecting certain chemicals used to make explosives when they are flushed into the urban sewer system.

Waste from home made bomb manufacturing ends up being flushed or draining into the public sewer, and the Swedish Defense Research Agency is coordinating the development of the Explosive Material Production Hidden Agile Search and Intelligence System, or EMHASIS, to detect trace amounts of the substances and alert authorities.

The presence of chemicals related to homemade explosives detected by sewer sensors will give authorities leads so that further investigation can narrow down the location of bomb manufacturing using a variety of evidence.

Hopefully this method of detection will be able to prevent the use of the explosives before they cause any damage.

According to the EMPHASIS project website: “The intention is first to cover a large area that will be reduced step by step to smaller areas. The search strategy in the smaller area is to increase the number of sensors used in order to localize the bomb factory.”

Representatives from the project say they will begin testing the sensors in real sewers sometime next year.