No, not granite. The usual standard of comparison is typical uranium ore in the ground. And even then, we're talking about external radiation levels only (as in, were one to handle the HLW manually). Internal levels of radiation -- i.e. alpha decay radioactivity -- is still quite a bit higher, due to the long-lived transuranics, especially plutonium and americium (I'm assuming that we're talking about un-reprocessed spent fuel, not just fission products), and of course all the remaining un-fissioned uranium is still there too. But this alpha radioactivity is irrelevant for manual handling -- only for internal body exposure, were you to decide to eat some of the stuff.

For additional details, see my post at http://www.nwmo.ca/adx/asp/adxGetMedia.asp?DocID=423,350,86,21,1,Documents&MediaID=1098&Filename=NWMO+JF+Commentary+21-01-04.doc  -- this is a Word document.... you can also get a pdf at http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/NWMO_JF_Commentary_21-01-04.pdf