Nuclear Waste Site Hunt Could Press Granite Solution

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The probably rejection 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 eying 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 such as geological stability and low permeability pointing to granite deposits in the East and Midwest as possible sites for long-term nuclear waste disposal.