Uranium Possibility Starts Search By Dartmouth in White Mountains

Dartmouth will start prospecting in March for uranium on a 27,000 acre tract of woodland it owns in the White Mountains.

The decision, announced yesterday, was based on reports that the mountains are among the most radioactive in the world, Robert S. Monahan, in charge of the project, said.

Monahan, the college forester, pointed out that the Atomic Energy Commission has already explored the region. "The possibility of finding uranium in New Hampshire has been known since 1946. The entire state has been surveyed."

The granite in the area has been found to contain ten times the ordinary percentage of uranium, he added. Dartmouth is hoping to find a vein of the ore within the tons of granite beneath the land.

The site, called the College Grant, was given to Dartmouth by the State Legislature in 1807 to "assist the education of youth who shall be indigent."