Hanford Site WA
© USDE
Reports of discoveries of unidentified substances keep popping up in the news around the world lately. As if the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants wasn't terrifying enough, this first story is enough to make you build another closet in your bunker just for extra potassium iodide tablets. Earlier this month, officials with the Washington state Department of Ecology levied a fine against the U.S. Energy Department for what they're calling an "unidentified substance" left out in the open on the grounds surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation's Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant.

Apparently, Washington health officials warned the plant about the unidentified white powder for over two years and nothing was done about it. But you know, let's keep dismantling the government agencies responsible for overseeing these types of things. I'm sure we'll be fine.

aftermath Harvey
© unknownHouston after Hurricane Harvey
Further inland on the U.S. mainland, a similar story popped up in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. After the hurricane devastated much of the Texas coastline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported discovering 517 containers full of "unidentified, potentially hazardous material" from toxic and radioactive waste disposal sites. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tried to bury the discovery of these containers in a press release about the government's response to the storm, but The Dallas Morning News caught the single sentence and reported on it. The EPA has not responded to queries about the material or what it might be.

Burnham
© unknownBurnham-on-Sea, Somerset
On the other side of the world, the Coastguard Rescue Team in Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England was dispatched to recover a container full of an unidentified substance which washed up on shore. The individual who discovered the container described it as a black liquid.

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