Pripyat, Chernobyl exclusion zone. Aerial view of the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, showing how nature is beginning to recapture the area. Pripyat is a ghost town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. On 26th April 1986, reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant went out of control, leading to meltdown and an explosion. Around 1000 square kilometres of land were directly contaminated by radioactive fall-out and a 30km exclusion zone was created. A concrete sarcophagus, the Object Shelter, was built to contain the radioactive materials, but within the restricted area the radiation is still lethal to humans.