We’re used to the fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an alternative open-world of the Chernobyl Zone where life goes by the other laws of nature and physics. But eight years ago the well known game had a different title and was based on a completely different concept. Who knows, maybe we would have never seen the game as it is today, if the developers from GSC Game World didn’t visit Chernobyl in search of inspiration and new ideas for the project. A huge contribution to the creation of the virtual Zone was made by a deputy technical director of nuclear safety at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and now a close friend of GSC, Alexander Novikov. He told GSC-Fan journalists about the cooperation with developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., about Chernobyl and his fate.

[GSC-Fan]: Hello, Alexander! Tell us how your work was connected to the Chernobyl NPP? What are the responsibilities of a deputy technical director for nuclear safety at the plant?

[Alexander Novikov]: Never thought I’d write notes of memoir nature somewhere other than surveys. However, let’s start. I started my work on the ChNPP on June 22, 1986 in the position of dosimetrist for the second category. After graduation from the institute I worked as an engineer-physicist, then head of nuclear physics laboratory and after that head of department for nuclear safety, and five years ago I took the current position.

I’ve just written these words and wondered how many things had happened over the years: the liquidation of the consequences, the operation of the power units, closing of the plant, its decommissioning. And two flashes in memory — the destroyed power unit 4 in 1986 and the control room of unit 3 in 2000…

To start with, the deputy technical director for safety is the official name of my job, it means that I ensure nuclear and radiation safety on facilities of the plant. There are many responsibilities: the maintenance of the current level of safety on power units, the safety justification of facilities under construction and the Shelter Object, are one of the most serious questions. People work there, and the level of radioactive impact on staff should stay within strict normative limits. But it’s not easy, believe me…

[GSC-Fan]: At what stage is the construction of the Shelter Object? What has been done and what remains to be done to complete its construction?

[Alexander Novikov]: I’ll answer within the description of the current site status. The Shelter Object was constructed in November 1986. In 2008 work was carried out on stabilization of its selected structures, which allowed its term of operation to extend for 15 years, even with a six-point earthquake. Now in the local area at the Shelter and the industrial site directly adjacent to it, work is in progress to create a New Safe Confinement (NSC). The work was completed on the creation of trenches for the foundations, now work is in progress on clearing the site to create the erection area. I present the following steps enlarged — assembly and installation of metal structures, forming the complete arch itself, sliding it on the Shelter, sealing the ends.



[GSC-Fan]: The Sarcophagus covering the destroyed reactor 4 came into disrepair. What is the condition of its encasement and integrity today?

[Alexander Novikov]: I’ve partly answered this above, but I’ll give some explanations. Even at the stage of design and construction of the Shelter there was no objective to create a sealed structure. But during the term of operation there have been some problems, in particular, the so-called “light” roof came to a condition when a large amount of water was leaked from the environment into the Shelter. To reduce this factor that affects nuclear and radiation safety, “light” roof was renovated (in fact its replacement).

[GSC-Fan]: The whole construction cycle of the Sarcophagus can be traced back to photos and videos. But something from the chronicle remained unknown. For example, a unique case of helicopter landing on the ventilation stack of ChNPP (this case is described in the documentary novel “Chernobyl” by Yuriy Shcherbak — editor’s note). Has anything interesting happened during your work at the plant?

[Alexander Novikov]: Believe me, most of the construction steps of the Shelter were out of the view. A concrete plant with a never-ending string of mixers, disposing of waste generated as a result of clearing of territory, concreting of site, there are lots of things that were out of the view. Even now, reviewing the chronicles in order to notice the most interesting frames I have to watch it frame-by-frame. In order to stimulate interest for this great object from a construction perspective but tragic from a human perspective, try to find information about the “bathyscaphe tanks” of ChNPP on the web, and then find them in footage chronicles.

As far as I know, none of the helicopters actually landed on the ventilation stack of ChNPP (to be honest, there are two of them — concrete stack VS-1 and the famous red-white metal stack VS-2). It’s close to impossible. Probably you mean the death of the Mi-8 helicopter crew on October 2, 1986. And in this photo a helicopter’s landing with Albert Gore in front of the plant.



The helicopter of the USA vice president Albert Gore on the ChNPP territory. July 23, 1998.

Usually, journalists ask questions about the interesting cases in hopes of hearing the dramatic stories about mutants and glow over the Sarcophagus. My strongest impressions were formed from the more prosaic but no less dramatic objects and events. As I said earlier, a view of destroyed power unit, closing the ChNPP, a vehicle graveyard in Rassokha, the empty Pripyat, a ship graveyard in Chernobyl city, a kindergarten in Kopachi, a church in Krasnoe, a burned village Tolstyi Les, wife’s tears when she saw her apartment in Pripyat, a majestic antenna of Chernobyl-2, if doesn’t matter what I have seen in the Zone...

[GSC-Fan]: This year will be 25 years since the Chernobyl tragedy, and in Kyiv will host the Summit on the Safe and Innovative Use of Nuclear Energy. What do you think, what questions must be solved first in the context of this summit?

[Alexander Novikov]: I think it’s impossible to solve the problems in the context of such an event, but it’s possible to identify the range of problems and to prioritize their resolution. But now I’ll say a strange thing — currently the main safety concern of NPPs is the low level of knowledge among young specialists, graduates of universities. Now it’s difficult to find a physicist, construction worker, chemist, electrician, only managers are coming. There are many workers, but there are not so many engineers.

[GSC-Fan]: How many people are working in the Zone now? What do they do?

[Alexander Novikov]: It’s hard to give even approximate numbers, I’ll explain why. In addition to ten companies of the Ministry of Emergencies (including ChNPP) there are contractor companies that work in the Zone, and their staff changes according to the nature of active work. Workers of the Institute for Safety Problems of NPPs play an important role in the Zone. So I’ll say that I know — 3,407 people work in the ChNPP.

ChNPP staff decommission the power units, transport nuclear fuel to the storage facility, maintain the Shelter Object in a safe condition, build a new fuel storage facility for 100 years and plants on liquid radwaste management.

Workers of the Zone companies ensure the radiation monitoring, organize the disposing of radioactive waste, provide scientific support for the ChNPP, meals to the workers of the Zone, etc.

[GSC-Fan]: There are many speculations around the Zone about radiation — people still fear Chernobyl. What is the current situation in the Exclusion Zone in radiation and ecological terms?

[Alexander Novikov]: The fear of Chernobyl (I mean the problem, not the city) is often emotional, reality is more severe. Without getting into the special terms that are too complicated for non-specialists to understand, just as a simple example. Take a glass of acetone and pour it on your head — if you close your eyes quickly, the consequences for the organism will be minimal. Now leave a tenth of acetone in a glass and drink it (don’t do it in reality, it’s just an example!). The consequences may be the most deplorable. The situation is the same with radiation, values of external doses that can have deterministic health effects, significantly exceed the limits of internal doses. The only remark: a non-threshold concept is now accepted, that in the first approximation says, any dose of radiation has the potential to cause stochastic effects with some probability (I’ve written these lines a bit of complicated, maybe someone will have a desire to figure out, and at the same time we’ll raise the radiation literacy of the people).



Map of caesium-137 contamination in Ukraine

Now for the Zone. The laws of radioactive decay operate independently of political and economic situations in the world. And if caesium-137, the main dose-forming radionuclide in terms of external radiation, has a half-life of 30 years, then plutonium-239 as the most dangerous in terms of internal dose forming, has a half-life of 24,065 years. The conclusion is simple: if separate areas of the Zone are acceptable for living in terms of external radiation, then the Zone itself can’t be settled for a long time in terms of internal radiation. Radionuclides entering the organism with respirable dust, food and water will create long-term risks for people living on this territory.



It’s about the radiation. As for the ecological situation, it’s easier. People have almost stopped economic activity in the Zone, in other words the industrial sources of emission and toxic dumping disappeared. In terms of ecology, the Zone is one of the most comfortable places on our planet. But I repeat that doesn’t include the radiation factor.

[GSC-Fan]: The Zone became a reserve for many species of plants and animals where their populations are higher than in other habitats. But on the other hand, there are sustained rumors that the increased level of radioactivity in Chernobyl radically affects the genetic material of living organisms causing strong mutations. Is it really so, or is the situation exaggerated?



[Alexander Novikov]: It’s not really my question, I’m not a biologist, so the answer will be in the amateur nature of an outside observer. In all my years working in the Zone, I’ve never seen six-legged deers, two-headed boars, snorks and bloodsuckers. But there are really a lot of animals — boars, mooses, foxes became a common thing, white-tailed eagles catch the eye with their magnificent flight over the expanses of Ukrainian Polesie, a cormorant flock on the dam starts low over the water — nature quickly recaptures frontiers lost under the pressure of human technology.

[GSC-Fan]: Reports of radiation level holding in the Zone alternate with claims that the background radiation in Chernobyl trends towards a gradual decrease towards safe values. In this regard, the next question: is it likely that in future the abandoned Exclusion Zone will be populated again?



[Alexander Novikov]: In my opinion, the question of rehabilitation of the Zone should take place in a completely different way. There is no human population in the Zone and it won’t be there for a long time. Therefore, life in the Zone can be revived only by the creation of industries, construction of which could not be started in other regions of the country. The first step is construction of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility common to all Ukrainian NPPs. In order to prevent speculations on this point, I repeat — a storage facility (not a burial ground, not a dumping site, but a high-tech production with high safety level), for nuclear fuel (not radioactive waste, but namely fuel, which is a very complex structure with two barriers to release of radioactive substances and ionizing radiation).

[GSC-Fan]: In the book “Chernobyl, Pripyat, then nowhere” by Arthur Shigapov describes many ways of illegal entry into the Exclusion Zone. What do you think about these “manuals”?

[Alexander Novikov]: (Oh, I even found my photo in there.) My attitude to these publications is ambivalent. If you don’t write anything at all about it, an unhealthy hype is born, causing an imaginary feeling of useless heroism in unstable minds. In this case, more talking and discussions of illegal entries (real or successful hoaxes) than those. If you describe illegal trips in a romantic mood, there is a strong chance to create the simplicity illusion of it in immature minds. As a result, there is a possibility for serious damage to the walker’s health including the fatal outcome.

But if you honestly write about all the hardships and losses of such a “bloody-hell-voyage” (radiation exposure, lack of drinking water, encounters with wild animals, cold, criminal and administrative penalties for such offenses, etc.), then it’s not only possible but necessary. By the way, it’s a good idea! When I’ll be on vacation, I’ll write “My parting words to a beginner stalker”, and let them read it.



[GSC-Fan]: There are many tours to the Exclusion Zone, both large groups and individual excursions. And of course everyone wants to go to the ChNPP itself. Is it possible?

[Alexander Novikov]: This is possible, and routes can be different, from visiting a mock-up hall to an excursion on the unit control room. It all depends on the operability of your tour operator (or what they’re correctly called?). But this is possible.

[GSC-Fan]: The current excursions to the Zone are conducted on pre-approved certain routes. Is it possible that new routes to previously unavailable places will be organized?



[Alexander Novikov]: The difficulty of organizing new routes is related not even to the radiation factor that however exists, and not to the impact of technological processes that may impact on the “nuclear tourists”. Often, interesting places of the Zone are not available for a trivial reason — the overgrown roads and felled trees. I think the number of objects in the Zone with organized access will decrease with time. Even the traditional trips to Pripyat can be unavailable if the condition of city buildings gets worse.

[GSC-Fan]: What efforts are being made to prevent cases of illegal entries into the Exclusion Zone?

[Alexander Novikov]: The question, so to speak, is outside my competence, but the system of checkpoint to a 30-kilometre and 10-kilometre radius works well, the city is guarded, and possible points of entry into the Zone on bear trails for insane stalkers can not be closed, but (I don't want to scare anyone) nature is the best guard here. Wild boar is not as terrifying at the Cordon as it is in the evening forest, when your self-defense weapon is not an SVD Rifle, but a stick…

[GSC-Fan]: How did your relationship with the GSC Game World begin? What was your first impression of these guys?

[Alexander Novikov]: Nostalgia, but we are still young at heart... I met Andriy Tkachenko aka Rainbow (lead level designer) through friends, it seems, in late 2002-early 2003, and he invited me to the GSC office. There I met Andriy Prokhorov aka Prof (lead designer) and he showed me S.T.A.L.K.E.R., back then it was called Oblivion Lost. I was impressed by the “Rift” and “ZIL” truck 3D model, and of course, the Zone’s view. I was in Kyiv and felt as if I was standing in Kopachi, it was very atmospheric! Thus began our friendship, then Anton Bolshakov, Oleg Yavorsky and many interesting guys who worked on the project. I’ve seen how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is developing, acquiring the features, and one day Prokhorov let me play the pre-release build. Even after all of the leaked builds, I didn’t see THE SAME S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which was shown by Andriy.



Oleg Yavorsky, Igor Gramotkin (ChNPP General Director), Alexander Novikov and Andriy Prokhorov. March 21, 2006.

“Shadow of Chernobyl” was released, then “Clear Sky” and soon “Call of Pripyat”. The team has changed a lot, but I still keep in touch with Andriy (I really liked his project “Metro 2033”), and the relationship with the new team is good (pah-pah, so as not to jinx it).

[GSC-Fan]: What materials or information did you provide to developers so that they could bring the Zone world into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as realistic as possible?

[Alexander Novikov]: The term “realistic” cannot be used for a game project, realism kills gameplay. Imagine that you need to get from Chernobyl city to ChNPP (18 km). Are you ready to push WASD for three hours to get to the destination? Yes, similarity is good, but not realism.

Now for the materials. I helped GSC with “Shadow of Chernobyl” and “Clear Sky” mainly as an ethics expert, the topic is sensitive, you can insult someone easily. For “Call of Pripyat” I gave my photos of the ship graveyard in Chernobyl city (Zaton location) and the Yaniv railway station. I escorted the GSC team in the city, including the Jupiter factory. Release of “Call of Pripyat” has shown that my pathetic attempts are not lost.

[GSC-Fan]: How often did GSC ask you to visit relatively unknown places in the Zone that pose some danger? Have you ever deterred them from visiting these areas?

[Alexander Novikov]: I don’t take the team to relatively unknown places in the Zone that pose some danger. We need to take care of the nation’s genotype.

[GSC-Fan]: Have you played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games? What game can you especially note?

[Alexander Novikov]: I’ve played different versions of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., ranging from pre-release builds to official releases, from time to time I install different modifications to take a look and appreciate the community reaction to the project. Of course, I felt very strong impressions when Andriy Prokhorov gave me to play one of the first builds for the first time, the location “Shadow of Chernobyl” left an unforgettable impression on me when I saw in-game ABK-1 administrative building, power plant node, and of course the city in “Call of Pripyat”, ranging from authenticity of the places to the city’s atmosphere where I’ve been so many times. I’d especially like to note that Limansk in “Clear Sky”, is all too recognizable, all too real for a person who grew up in those times when you could buy a glass of soda water for a one kopeck, and an ice cream bar had a special something to long-lost the taste...



I personally note for myself “Call of Pripyat”, this game, in my opinion, is the closest to the real Zone’s atmosphere. Not a Zone, that game’s fans have imagined for themselves, but a real Zone, somewhere deserted, somewhere bustling, and yet always dangerous and severe, not forgiving of mistakes. Probably this is how nature takes revenge on man for his actions.

[GSC-Fan]: What do you think, has the GSC succeeded in their goal to make the Chernobyl Zone in a computer game? Have there been moments that you don’t like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

[Alexander Novikov]: As I said, the closest to feelings for my perception of the Zone is “Call of Pripyat”: it’s a feeling of loss and hopelessness, a gradual understanding that man isn’t the master in the Zone, that you have to pay for your mistakes always and everywhere. Pripyat is a location of grand scale, so much work, such careful attention to details. And the Prometheus statue returned to its place in the city, in front of the movie theater. But I repeat that absolute realism would kill gameplay (it always makes me laugh when the community discusses the realism of mutants’ behavior of the Zone).



The thing I absolutely didn’t like is the helicopter with a life bar on the Hospital in “Clear Sky”. The big boss of the location, in my opinion, is a bad tone for a project. Shooting from a Gauss rifle at Strelok is made in the same style, I don’t like that. As you can see, all my claims relate to “Clear Sky”, it’s a project which has brought more damage, especially to the GSC’s reputation, than dividends. But it’s just my opinion.

[GSC-Fan]: Sometimes you can hear the opinion that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is “a project made on human suffering that served as the fertile ground for the game”. How would you comment on such a statement?

[Alexander Novikov]: I’ve repeatedly said that the worst thing in our world is oblivion. If at least one young kid from Germany (France, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) after a walkthrough of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will think about what really caused the creation of the Exclusion Zone, what happened to Pripyat, start looking for the articles about Chernobyl on the web, photos, memories of liquidators, it means that the GSC team completed its human mission. The second aspect: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a world-class project, here we can say without excessive pathos about national pride for the country, where this project was developed.

[GSC-Fan]: Did you like how the devs have created a character of mechanic Novikov from “Clear Sky” based on you?



[Alexander Novikov]: My first appearance was in “Shadow of Chernobyl”, but Dean Sharpe (THQ executive producer, the worldwide publisher of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) cut out my character from the final release without mercy. In general, my alter-ego appeared in the game after the “Researchers of the Zone” project, reports were written, screenshots were taken. Afterwards, the mechanic was in “Clear Sky” and the latest incarnation was in a bunker of scientists (“Call of Pripyat”). Devs definitely flattered me in regards to the body shape, but honestly, I was expecting a more brutal character. In the game I’m neither fish nor fowl. The only thing that pleases me is the recognition among “nuclear tourists”, many of them take photos with me, and we recently took a photo together in Chernobyl — Novikov, Garik and Cardan.



Illya Tolmachov, Alexander Novikov and Kostiantyn Stupivtsev

[GSC-Fan]: In your opinion, can Chernobyl city be interesting in a game format of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as well as Pripyat? What landmarks recreated in the game could attract gamers?

[Alexander Novikov]: As they say, that’s an interesting question, of course. Chernobyl city looks less impressive in comparison with Pripyat, it has more similarity with Limansk. However, I think that GSC can really design an interesting location. I’d like to see in the game a school on Kirova street, a kindergarten, a central square, a city communications center, a stadium, an industrial area and St. Elijah Church. All these places have a subtle charm of provinciality, domesticity, and it will form an atmosphere of tragedy and hopelessness in the game setting.

[GSC-Fan]: Imagine that (God forbid, of course) the plot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was repeated in real life, and the Chernobyl Zone became a territory much more dangerous than before. Would you be able to adapt to its conditions and become a stalker?

[Alexander Novikov]: Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s hard to scare a person who has gone through the liquidation of the consequences, and probably there are no situations that cannot be adapted to (except the worst). But the Zone’s environment in the game context of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would be death for me, literally and metaphorically. My game character from “Call of Pripyat” sits in a bunker for a reason.

[GSC-Fan]: Are there many administration officials of ChNPP who play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Maybe you gather to have multiplayer battles? :) Which of the staff, so to speak, “have a good hand” and are the best players?

[Alexander Novikov]: I know for sure that one deputy general director played through all the games. He even has his own S.T.A.L.K.E.R. concept, a very interesting idea, with a focus on the quest part and minimum shooting. I don’t know about the others. Therefore, the multiplayer battles spared the ChNPP management. And according to our age and that we want to rest at home, talk to family, online battles become an impossible activity.

[GSC-Fan]: Alexander, is there anything you would like to tell our visitors and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans?

[Alexander Novikov]: I’d like to wish your visitors (obviously very young people) a strong desire to study. Believe me, investment in knowledge like in property is always profitable. A high-class specialist always strongly looks to the future. And I wish to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans a clear sky and a full mag!

Finishing on such an optimistic note, we are expressing our gratitude to Alexander for interesting and informative talk! We’re sure that the honest work of staff and the administration of the Chernobyl NPP will serve as a good example for our readers.

The authors thank:

• the art director of GSC Game World Illya Tolmachov for help in organizing the interview,
  
• Tatiana Vishnyakova aka Tanchik for support in working with the article.

Also the editor thanks:

• Maeda K. and Kaitlyn Keller for help with English translation,
  
• Artem Samoilenko aka SamArt and Nikita Nikson aka BashyOne for the screenshot created especially for this article.

Join SlavaR Blog to get notifications for new articles about S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro and other iconic Ukrainian video games.