Of course, Chernobyl is not Auschwitz; nearly all of Pripyat’s 50,000 residents were safely evacuated from the abandoned town, which is still heavily contaminated with radiation from the accident in 1986. However, it is the site of a human tragedy that has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. What possible excuse could you have for getting sexy there?

This is the ugly side of disaster tourism. People cynically using a catastrophe to further their own ends, trying to give the impression of being ‘adventurous’ and ‘curious,’ but instead relegating a somber, meaningful place to just another background for endless selfies.

Sure, visit Pripyat. Read and learn about what occurred there, about the heroic people that sacrificed themselves trying to contain the accident and the realities of life under communism. Discuss the pros and cons of nuclear energy. Take pictures and share your experience with your friends! But don’t get your butt out. Your butt is irrelevant and disrespectful to the memory of the people that lost their lives there, OK?