Pripyat River

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The Pripyat River (Прип’ять, 'prɨpjatʲ; Прыпяць, Prypiać, 'prɨpʲatsʲ; Prypeć, 'prɨpɛtsʲ; Припять, 'pripjatʲ) is a river in Eastern Europe, of approximately 710 km (441 mi.) length. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper.

The Pripyat passes through the Zone of alienation around the Chernobyl reactor, where the nuclear disaster happened. Therefore it transported and still transports radionuclides downstream. The concentration of caesium-137 is still increasing in dredges and has not been reduced in the river sediments.

The city of Prypiat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.

Name etymology

The river's name is of uncertain origin and meaning. It might derive from the local word pripech used for a sandy bank river or perhaps from a Western-Baltic name Preipente "the river at (till) the spurs", the Pripyat river being very shallow in the area inhabited by Western Balts.

References

See also

• Prypiat Marshes

External links

• Pripyat: Radioactive pollution, 2003

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 15:33:16 PST (GMT -0800)
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