Nuclear Waste Site Hunt Could Point to Granite

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The likely death of a planned nuclear waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has left federal agencies looking for a possible replacement.

Now, a national lab working for the U.S. Department of Energy is eyeing granite deposits stretching from Georgia to Maine as potential sites, along with big sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin where granite is prevalent.

Andrew Orrell, who headed up a site study for the Sandia National Lab in New Mexico, says it would be premature for anyone to worry about their neighborhood becoming a potential high-level waste site.

But the Sandia study lists factors like geological stability and low permeability pointing to granite deposits in the East and Midwest as possible sites for long-term nuclear waste disposal.

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