Stalkers of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

A great
piece in Roads & Kingdoms visits the world of the
stalkers—not creepy dudes who follow women around, but a Ukrainian
subculture devoted to illegally exploring the Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone. Here’s an excerpt:

Online communities have emerged
to trade information, tips, and advice on what routes are safe from
the police, which entrances have become too dangerous, or where
supplies are hidden. Experienced stalkers sometimes mentor younger
wannabes. Pseudonyms are always used. In-person meetings are only
cautiously pursued, as stalkers worry about police sting
operations.

Some forums are open only to those who’ve achieved a certain level
of success. Stalkers pursue a set of thresholds—or “acceptances”—by
reaching an increasingly challenging (and dangerous) set of
destinations. “Dogs and security are the biggest problem in the
Chernobyl Zone, not radiation, not zombies,” says one veteran who
almost lost an eye while fleeing police.

Of course, radiation seems like the most obvious danger, though the
health risks aren’t as clear as you might think. Nearly 30 years
after an accident, nuclear contaminants with short half-lives are
no longer a threat, and acute radiation poisoning would only take
place if you “went into the sarcophagus and sat on the fuel
containing rods,” says Chernobyl official Vita Polyakova. But there
are still elevated background radiation levels in places such as
Pripyat as well super “hot spots” of severe contamination, many of
them undocumented. The risk of ingesting radionuclides—the
radioactive strontium and cesium present in dust, water, and food
grown in the area—is the most acute threat.

“Maybe on the outside we got more radiation than usual,” a stalker
concedes, “but once we leave, radionuclides are washed off our skin
and that’s it. The greatest risk is when it gets inside your body.
That’s why we try to bring everything with us—water, food.”

“But D. ate apples in the Zone,” I remind him.

“I did, twice. They were so big!” D. chimes in. “I drink water in
the Zone, eat apples, and everything is good for me. No second
head,” he adds with a small smile.

The stalkers took their name from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video
game franchise, in which players probe a post-apocalyptic Chernobyl
region. The games, in turn, were inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s
cerebral science-fiction film
Stalker, released in the pre-Chernobyl-disaster days of
1979; and Tarkovsky’s movie was broadly based on Arkady and Boris
Strugatsky’s 1971 novel
Roadside Picnic, in which “stalkers” steal artifacts
from mysterious and deadly “Zones.” So this is a life-imitates-sf
story, overlaid with a layer of no-future punk pessimism:

Another oft-cited piece of cultural fallout from
Chernobyl is a pervasive fatalism; a widespread victim mindset,
which creates a feeling of “lacking control over their future,” as
Fred Mettler of the International Atomic Energy Association wrote
in the report Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and
Socio-Economic Impacts. He adds, “The population remains
largely unsure of what the effects of radiation actually are and
retain a sense of foreboding. A number of adolescents and young
adults who have been exposed to modest or small amounts of
radiation feel that they are somehow fatally flawed and there is no
downside to using illicit drugs or having unprotected
sex.”

Or eating the forbidden apples.