The Pripyat River (Ukrainian: Прип'ять, Prýp"yat'; Belarusian: Прыпяць, Prýpyats'; Polish Prypeć) is a river in Eastern Europe, of approximately 710 km (440 mi.) length. It flows west through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper.
The Pripyat passes through the 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl reactor, where the catastrophic nuclear accident 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 Pripyat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl accident.
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