The Pripyat River or Prypiat River (Ukrainian: Прип’ять, pronounced [ˈprɪpjɑtʲ]; Belarusian: Прыпяць, Prypiać, [ˈprɨpʲatsʲ]; Polish: Prypeć, [ˈprɨpɛtɕ]; Russian: Припять, [ˈpripjatʲ]) is a river in Eastern Europe, of approximately 710 km (440 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.
Pripyat River at Mazyr, Belarus
Name etymology
Map displaying the passage of the river through southern
Belarus through the cities of
Mazyr,
Pinsk and
Brest.
There are three possible reasons for the name:-
- The part of the word "Pri" literally means "near" which in the local context translates to being "near the river's mouth", as well as "pyat" means "5", derived from the Russian language. This river has a confluence with 5 other rivers.[citation needed]
- It might derive from the local word pripech used for a sandy bank river.[1]
- From a Western-Baltic name Preipente "the river at (till) the spurs"[citation needed], the Pripyat river being very shallow in the area inhabited by Western Balts.
See also
References
- ^ Room, Adam (1997). Placenames of the World. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland.
External links
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