Unique Site Characteristics

Oldest and most stable rocks on earth

Feldspar in thick granite bed chemically weathered to form primary kaolin clay bed

Sandy Ridge is in the Big Bell suite -thick, flat, stable, dry clay bed ~150 km long, ~20 km wide and in places ~ 40 m thick. ~15 to 2.6 Mya mostly an impermeable layer of silcrete and laterite formed on top of the kaolinized clay adding another natural barrier or cap

Man made and natural barriers permanently isolate waste from the biosphere, plus the site has low rainfall (semi-arid area), high evaporation rates, the site is dry (no aquifer) and meets best practice site selection criteria for near surface geological repository