ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

100,000-year problem

Have you ever heard of a problem that has lasted for 100,000 years? Well, it’s a little complicated but let me explain it to you like you are 5 years old.

Imagine you have a very important message that you need to keep safe for 100,000 years. That’s a really long time, right? Now, think about how you’d keep that message safe. Maybe you’d write it on a piece of paper and put it in a safe, right? But what if the paper gets damaged over time, or the safe breaks down? That message wouldn’t be safe anymore.

Now, imagine scientists have a very important message that they need to keep safe for 100,000 years. But it’s not just any message - it’s a warning to future generations about nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is very dangerous, and it can cause a lot of harm if it’s not handled properly. So, scientists want to make sure that future generations know how to handle it.

The problem is, we don’t know what the world will be like in 100,000 years. Maybe people won’t speak the same language, or they won’t understand the symbols we use today. Maybe they won’t even know that nuclear waste is dangerous. So, scientists have to come up with a way to make sure that their warning message is understood by future generations, no matter what.

That’s what the 100,000-year problem is all about. It’s a problem that scientists are trying to solve so that future generations can know about the dangers of nuclear waste, even if the world looks completely different than it does today.