More than 33 years after a radiation accident turned the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant into an exclusion zone, scientists have distilled the first consumer product to come from the abandoned area: an artisan vodka.
Branded ATOMIK, the radioactive-free alcohol was produced from crops grown on a farm within the zone.
Jim Smith, a professor at the University of Portsmouth, described the vodka as “the most important bottle of spirits in the world.”
“I think this is the most important bottle of spirits in the world because it could help the economic recovery of communities living in and around the abandoned areas,” project leader Smith said in a statement.
“Many thousands of people are still living in the Zone of Obligatory Resettlement, where new investment and use of agricultural land is still forbidden,” he explained.
The team wants to donate 75 percent of profits from selling ATOMIK to help those communities affected by the 1986 disaster.
During their three-year experiment, researchers did find some radioactivity in the fermented grain. But because distilling reduces any impurities, the only nuclear particles they could detect in the finished product are natural Carbon-14, which occur at the same level you’d expect in any spirit drink.
The alcohol has been diluted with nearby mineral water, which boasts similar chemistry to groundwater in the Champagne region of France. And, according to the University of Portsmouth, is also free from contamination.
“We welcome this initiative to use abandoned lands to help local communities,” Oleg Nasvit, first deputy head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, said. “It is important that we do everything we can do support the restoration of normal life in these areas whilst always putting safety first.”
The Chernobyl Spirit Company hopes to begin small-scale experimental production of ATOMIK grain spirit sometime this year. There are some legal issues to be ironed out first.
“We don’t think the main exclusion zone should be extensively used for agriculture as it is now a wildlife reserve,” Smith said. “But there are other areas where people live [where] agriculture is still banned.”
Thirty-three years on, many abandoned areas could now be used to grow crops safely, without the need for distillation.
Analytical tests of the water and distillate alcohol were conducted by the Ukraine Hydrometeorological Institute, the University of Southampton GAU-Radioanalytical, the University of Portsmouth Geological and Environment Laboratories, and an independent wine and spirits testing lab.
“I’d call this a high-quality moonshine,” Nasvit said. “It isn’t typical of a more highly purified vodka, but has the flavor of the grain from our original Ukrainian distillation methods. I like it.”
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