(ASHEVILLE) -- As the Obama administration considers changes to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, some folks in western North Carolina are concerned about nuclear waste being transported through our region to a processing facility in South Carolina and about the possibility of a site in the Asheville area becoming a repository for non-waste material.

Mary Olson with the Asheville office of Nuclear Information and Resource Center said either would be a concern and if both come to be, it could have a major impact on our region because I-26 and I-40 would become major routes for transporting material -- material she says is much more toxic than what currently is transported through our region.

Olson said current traffic includes a nuclear fuel factory in eastern Tennessee that ships uranium in and out of the area, nuclear weapons to Charleston, plutonium to a Savannah River site in South Carolina, and waste within the Department of Energy's Oak Ride, Tennessee and Savannah River sites.