IS NIRVANA ANNIHILATION?

The Buddhist conception of Nirvana seems entirely negative.  Nirvana means the end, "the blowing out" of a person's existence.

Since the skandhas, that is the elements constituting an individual, including the ego, are dispersed in Nirvana,  it would seem that Nirvana is annihilation. 

Yet the Buddha would not say this.  He did not know whether it was annihilation.  All he knew and all he cared to know was that Nirvana was the end of painful becoming, the end of suffering. 

Nirvana was the final peace, he said.  An eternal state of being, it was much more than just a negative condition.