【Neglected wife movie - Jumpin at the Bedside (1976)】

Leave it to Instagrammers to make a literal nuclear disaster a popular spot for photo shoots.

Thanks to HBO's riveting historical drama Chernobyl,Neglected wife movie - Jumpin at the Bedside (1976) the real Chernobyl -- the Ukrainian nuclear power plant that was the site of the April 1986 disaster which remains the worst of its kind -- is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination.

And where there are tourists, there are Instagram poses.

View this post on Instagram

Search Instagram for photos from the area around Pripyat, Ukraine, near the remains of the Chernobyl plant, and you'll see a number of similar posts of visitors making Instagram poses in front of the long-abandoned ruins. There are even some slightly NSFW "model shots," including one in which a young woman is seen disrobing from what looks like a protective suit.

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

One disaster tour company told Reuters that it has seen a 40 percent increase in bookings since the Chernobyl miniseries debuted in May. Other companies reported similar spikes in reservations. English-language tours will reportedly set you back about $100.

Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: Before and After the Worst Nuclear Disasters in History

It's a morbid uptick that goes beyond the usual disaster tourism like, say, the tour buses through New Orleans' Ninth Ward after Katrina. What makes Chernobyl so unusual is that the site is still classified as an exclusion zone, due to the ongoing radiation and toxicity of the area as a result of the explosion.

View this post on Instagram

The death toll of the disaster also makes the trip a "morally queasy experience," as the Irish Timesput it. Thirty-one people reportedly died in the first few months following the explosion. But as many as 9,000 more people are suspected to have died since then due to diseases caused by radiation exposure -- though some estimates set that number much higher.

View this post on Instagram

One tour guide insisted to Reuters that anyone visiting the area is safe from lingering radiation now, 33 years after the disaster.

“Many people come here, they ask a lot of questions about the TV show, about all the events. People are getting more and more curious,” said tour guide Viktoria Brozhko, who insists the area is safe for visitors.

“During the entire visit to the Chernobyl exclusion zone, you get around two microsieverts, which is equal to the amount of radiation you’d get staying at home for 24 hours”,” she said.

Indeed, plenty of people are willing to tromp around the site with absolutely no protection, as their Instagram posts indicate.

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

The number of people visiting Pripyat and Chernobyl is only likely to grow in the coming months as more viewers check out the HBO series. There's also apparently a plan for a similar series from Russian network NTV that will tell what it claims to be the "true" version of the disaster, including U.S. spies that the country suggests were responsible for the explosion.

So if you had both "Instagram disaster porn" and "the Cold War being re-litigated through premium cable" on your 2019 bingo card, congrats, you're in the money.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Russia reportedly made a bigger use of Instagram than Facebook during elections

---

Topics HBO