News88 Blog Of The Day 05/02/2005: About The US Territory Of The JOHNSTON ATOLL

Copyright 2005 News88, All Rights Reserved, #122.

Please refer back to the blog of the day for 03/05/2005. Saturday, March 05, 2005 for your information, for more information.

Yesterdays blog: About The US Territory Of The WAKE ISLAND.
Todays blog: About The US Territory Of The JOHNSTON ATOLL.
Tomorrows blog: About The US Territory Of The BAKER ISLAND.

Johnston is a coral atoll about 700 mi southwest of Hawaii. It consists of four small islands-------------Johnston Island, Sand Island, Hikina Island, and Akau Island-------------which lie on a 9-mile-long reef. The atoll was discovered by Capt. Charles James Johnston of HMS Cornwallis in 1807. In 1858 it was claimed by Hawaii, and later became a U.S. possession. Johnston Atoll was used by the U.S. Air Force to conduct test launchings of nuclear missiles and contains a landfill of plutonium-contaminated waste. More than 4 million pounds of chemical weapons have been destroyed on Johnston since 1990, and the U.S. military had been fined several times since then for improperly handing VX and sarin gas and releasing the deadly substances on the atoll. The military is gradually departing and the atoll will be turned into a wildlife refuge. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the atoll's inheritor, is concerned about the possibility of eventual radioactive leakage. Source: Time Almanac 2005.

Other than that, Free open thread.

P.S. More on the Politics1 and the Chat-Web 2 spinoff sites we are createing as spinoffs not only of them but of News88 too, on or by Wednesday, June 01, 2005, or 06/01/2005.
P.S.S. For more information on Johnston Atoll, Please feel free to go to at my request and/or submission to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_Atoll . Thanks!