On Thursday, March 28th, 2024 the Atomic Museum invited guests to “Stories from the Atomic Age: An Abbreviated History of Johnston Atoll.” Historian and founding member of the Atomic Museum Robert Friedrichs shared the strange and true story of Johnston Atoll – a small uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean developed into a Naval Defensive Sea Area and Airspace Reservation during World War II, before becoming a hub for nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Johnston Atoll was associated with nuclear tests like Starfish Prime, a 1.4 Megaton device that detonated at an extremely high altitude with effects reaching into Outerspace, and Bluegill Prime, a misfire that was set to selfdestruct on its own launchpad. The atoll was later used in bioweapon testing and chemical weapon storage for toxins like Agent Orange before undergoing a decades long contamination cleanup process that even included the eradication of millions of invasive crazy ants. Today, it is a National Wildlife Refuge and is home to dozens of species of seabirds and a sanctuary for its surrounding marine life. Johnston Atoll played a critical role in nuclear testing and has such bizarre stories that it sounds like something out of science fiction. Learn about this tiny island far away from the American mainland and hear about the challenges of managing areas used for nuclear testing and other weapons related projects into the future.