Abandoned Amusement Parks

Pripyat Amusement Park was still being finalised when the nuclear disaster happened at the nearby Nuclear Power Plant. Being built for the May Day celebrations just a few days later it was never opened formally. Today it sits empty and forlorn, an icon of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. The amusement park in Pripyat has to be one of the iconic locations within the city. It was just being set up, ready to open for the May Day celebrations in the city on 1st May. However, the nuclear disaster on the night of the 26th of April 1986 meant that Pripyat was empty and abandoned by the end of April. Many Russian cities had amusement parks known as a “Park of Culture and Rest” and some of these are still working around both Russia and the new countries formed after the break-up of the USSR. The Pripyat Amusement Park had a 26m Ferris wheel, swing boats, a paratrooper ride, bumper cars and a shooting game. The fairground was opened briefly when it was decided that a distraction was required on the morning of the 27th of April, just before the notice to evacuate was given. An incomprehensible action today given what we know now about the severity of the disaster and the levels of radiation already in the area that morning. It wasn’t really ready, the Ferris wheel was still behind the cladding and the paratrooper ride did not have the canopies in place, but people were excited and visited the new park.The park sits empty and lonely. The bumper cars are where they were left, leaves blowing around the barriers. The seats on the paratrooper ride are slowly rusting away and the Ferris wheel is fixed and fading. The yellow capsules remain as bright as they originally were in places but the supports are orange with rust and the paint is flaking and peeling. Radiation levels around the park vary; the liquidators washed radiation into the soil after the helicopters carrying radioactive materials used the grounds as a landing strip. Concreted areas are relatively safe, but areas, where moss has built up, are high. Some areas can emit 25 µSv/h and one particular hot spot on the underside of a Ferris wheel capsule was found to emit just under 230µSv/h. These are some of the highest levels of radiation in the whole of Pripyat. The park appears in the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Call of Duty; Modern Warfare, in the film Chernobyl Diaries and is also the inspiration for Atlantic Island Park in The Secret World.

A few facts

Areas of Pripyat Amusement Park are considered to have high levels of radiation. This is because helicopters taking away radioactive soil used the park as a landing ground.

Most of the rides still remain intact

Not so fun facts

Radiation levels around the park vary. The concreted area has a low concentration of radioactivity because the liquidators washed the radioactivity into the soil after helicopters carrying it used the ground as a runway. However, areas of accumulated moss can emit up to 25,000 μSv/h of radiation, one of the highest levels in all of Pripyat.

In September 2017, Polish tourists made the news by mechanically spinning a Ferris wheel for the first time since 1986 and then putting it back in place.