(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a series of five articles by T.W. Budig on nuclear power.)

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Will the proposed federal nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada become the Stonehenge of the modern age?

Like Stonehenge in southern Britain, Yucca Mountain, too, will be designed to send a message to the centuries.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a series of tall - about 25-feet high - monuments will ring the Yucca Mountain parameter and also be placed near the top of the mountain.

Warning messages in the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish - are proposed to be written on the monuments.

The markers may also contain sign language symbol warnings used by the deaf.

Linguists suggest a unique international symbol be developed to symbolize a nuclear waste depository.

The warnings on the basalt or granite markers would be placed about 40-inches off the ground to prolong legibility, notes the energy department.

These monuments must endure the rigors of the desert - wind-blown sand that creates "desert varnish" over time, or a darkening on surfaces.

The depository parameter markers are envisioned as six-sided cones jutting upward at varying angles - planners want them to look unusual so people a thousand years hence won't mistaken them as honorific memorials.

In addition to the large parameter markers, plans call for nine-inch warning markers to be secured to the desert surface - these could be granite, stainless steel, fired clay.

Each marker would display the international radiation symbol.