2011-10-10

Rossoha - No go

The Rossoha graveyard.
Perhaps there isn't much to say concerning the vehicle graveyard near the village Rossoha, 25 kilometers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, because apparently there doen't seem to be much to be found about it.  

To keep it brief, the so called Rossoha graveyard is the place where thousands of contaminated vehicles were brought for their final rest after participating in tasks of extinguishing the fires and cleaning up the mess of the NPP's 4th reactor. Tanks, helicopters, jeeps, tractors, cranes and so on - they're all there. I found a photography, taken by Aleksandr Taranenko, of four fire trucks at the Rossoha graveyard and remember laughing at myself recalling the memory of the empty fire station of Pripyat. (At the time I for some strange reason wan't sure where the fire truck had gone. How utterly stupid.) Seeing that photo of the fire trucks made the disaster once again appear as something very concrete to me and now we're starting to approach the reason why I suddenly decide to write about Rossoha:

It's simply because I'll never get there and see it for myself.

Since some weeks ago, I've started to plan and make arrangements for my next journey to the Zone. It will be different this time, because this time I wish to go alone with a guide rather than in a group. Having established communication with a contact, he asked me to write down a wish list of places I want to visit and Rossoha came to be on it, as we didn't go there in May. 

I was then told that the graveyard has been closed to visitors since 2007. To me this was news, so I asked for the reason why and found out that it's the same old explanations circulating even in this case: The security of visitors (there have been plenty who didn't realize the danger of coming near or touching these highly irradiated vehicles) and -again- theft of metal, scraps, and so on.

But I also know that only two years ago, the Rossoha graveyard was visited by people from outside the Zone. How is this possible? The explaination is apparently that until a few years ago it was possible to find those working in the Zone who'd lend their aid to get visitors to Rossoha but as many of them have lost their employments due to these illegal acts, it is now as good as impossible to get there. 

What can I say? I'm too late, and this is just another sign of the constant changes of the Zone. 


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