Prypiat, Ukraine

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Prypiat c. 2001

Prypiat (Ukrainian: При́п'ять, Pryp”jat’; Russian: При́пять, Pripjat’), or Pripyat, is an abandoned city in the zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city was founded in 1970 to house the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, and was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident.

[edit] Background

Panoramic view of Pripyat in May 2009.

View of the Chernobyl power plant including current radioactive level

Unlike cities of military importance, access to Prypiat was not restricted prior to the disaster. Before the Chernobyl accident, nuclear power stations were seen by the Soviet Union as safer than other types of power plants. Nuclear power stations were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineering, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "peaceful atom" (Russian: мирный атом, mirny atom) was popular during those times. Initially the plant was intended to be built only 25 km from Kiev, but the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, among other bodies, expressed concern about the station being too close to the city, and so the station, together with Prypiat,^[1] were built in their current location — about 100 km from Kiev. After the disaster, the city of Prypiat was evacuated in two days.

[edit] After Chernobyl

The Pripyat Ferris Wheel, as seen from the City Center Gymnasium.

In 1986, the city of Slavutych was constructed to replace Pripyat. After the city of Chernobyl, this is the second largest city for accommodating plant workers and scientists.

Many of the building interiors in Prypiat have been vandalized and ransacked over the years. Because the buildings are not maintained, the roofs leak, and in the spring the rooms are flooded with water. It is not unusual to find trees growing on roofs and even inside buildings. This hastens deterioration, and due to this, a 4-story school partially collapsed in July 2005.

[edit] Safety

The contributions made by the different isotopes to the dose (in air) caused in the contaminated area in the time shortly after the accident. Note that this image was drawn using data from the OECD report, [1] and the second edition of 'The radiochemical manual'.

Abandoned apartment building in Pripyat

A natural concern is whether it is safe to visit Prypiat and the surrounding area. The Exclusion Zone is considered relatively safe to visit, and several Ukrainian companies offer guided tours of the area. The radiation levels have decreased from the high levels of April 1986 due to the decay of the short-lived isotopes released in the accident.

The city and the Exclusion Zone are now bordered with guards and police, but obtaining the necessary documents to enter the zone is not considered particularly difficult. A guide will accompany visitors to ensure nothing is vandalized or taken from the zone. The doors of most of the buildings are open to reduce the risk to visitors, and almost all of them can be visited when accompanied by a guide. The city of Chernobyl, located a few miles from Prypiat, has some accommodations including a hotel, many apartment buildings, and a local lodge, which are maintained as a permanent residence for watch-standing crew, and visitors.

Public swimming pool "Azure" in the center of Prypiat.

[edit] Cultural references

The video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky take place in the Zone of Alienation, and include a detailed rendition of Pripyat.
The video game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare features Pripyat in the campaign mode in which two SAS snipers who stealthily sneak into the town and take up a position in the top of a hotel and unsuccessfully assassinate a Russian Ultranationalist leader who was seeking to purchase nuclear material. The team ends up in an all out battle with the ultranationalist forces in the town and take up a position at the Ferris wheel It also has a multiplayer map, and it includes the abandoned pool, the culture center, the Pripyat hotel and Ferris wheel.
The Point of Existence 2 mod for the PC game Battlefield 2 features a map set in Pripyat, also featuring most of the major landmarks.
The hospital section of the video game Half Life 2: Episode 1 was based on photos of a hospital in Pripyat.^[2]
In The History Channel's Life After People, Pripyat is used as an example of the effects of time and nature on cities after the extinction of humans.^[3]
The city plays a major role in the music video "Everything is Everything" by the band Beats and Styles.
The town is also featured in the rapper Example's music video "What We Made" along with a documentary of the making of this video
In 1989, the Irish singer, Christy Moore included a song about Pripyat called "Farewell To Pripchat (Near Chernobyl)" in his album entitled "Voyage". The song was written by Irish songwriter, John McDermott. The song begins, "It was a Friday in April 1986, The day that nightmare began..." and finishes with "...The streets speak a deafening silence, Nothing stirs but the sand." The Scottish-Canadian singer John McDermott also performed this song, it can be found on his album called "Old Friends" (1994).
The city of Pripyat is the location of filming of the 2008 documentary White Horse.
In Tom Clancy`s book Splinter Cell: Checkmate Sam Fisher visits Pripyat on a mission to Chernobyl. In the video game arctic thunder in one track players race through Pripyat.
Several issues of the Vertigo comic book series The Losers are set in Prypiat. The city is used by rogue spies a base to construct nuclear weapons. The existing level of background radiation masks the weapons-grade plutonium used to create the bombs.