Vieques libre. (On the Line).Vieques, Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (pwār`tō rē`kō), island (2005 est. pop. 3,917,000), 3,508 sq mi (9,086 sq km), West Indies, c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) SE of Miami, Fla. On May 1, people celebrated the end of the Navy's operations on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. The Navy used the island as its main bombing training range for more than sixty years. After sustained protests, the Navy turned over 15,500 acres of the bombing range A bombing range is an area used for testing explosive ordnance and practicing to accurately direct them to the target. Bombing ranges are used for munitions that either explode or produce too much destruction to use at a shooting range, such as kinetic energy penetrators or very to the U.S. Department of the Interior, so the land can be added to the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge  National Wildlife Refuge . The Navy, having admitted to using depleted uranium Depleted Uranium (DU) is uranium remaining after removal of the isotope uranium-235. It is primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238. In the past it was called by the names Q-metal, depletalloy, and D-38, but these have fallen into disuse. and napalm on the range, has pledged to pay for cleanup of the base. Puerto Rico Governor Sila Calderon said she would put the site on a fast-track for a Superfund cleanup.
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