Recently I read in my Lonely Planet and on some news site like for example this one, that the site of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe is open for tourists. There are also tour operators that offer visits to the destroyed city and the nuclear power plant. They state that the only visit "safe" places, i.e. places that are not really contaminated.
I personally have no plan to go there, because I think it is too dangerous and I also don't like disaster tourism. But nevertheless I will be in Kiev soon, and a friend accompanying me plans to go there. So I have some questions:
Is it really possible to differentiate places in the Chernobyl area that are less contaminated than others? Are these tours safe? Is it ethically correct to visit such places?