Scientists have created Atomik, a brand of artisan vodka made from rye grown on land in Ukraine abandoned since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, to help the people living there.
The first ever bottle of Atomik vodka has been triple distilled then diluted to 40 per cent using uncontaminated groundwater drawn from an aquifer in the town of Chernobyl, 10 kilometres south of the defunct Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
By making the vodka, the researchers aim to show that alcohol made from crops grown near the site is safe to consume, and provide a means of income for local producers.
The first bottle of Atomik has passed radioactive safety tests
After rigorous testing, no radiative isotopes such as plutonium, americium, cesium or strontium show up in the finished product. Only a trace of carbon-14 can be found in the first bottle of Atomik, a level that is found naturally in alcohol.
The Chernobyl Spirit Company was set up by a team of scientists from Ukraine and Portsmouth University in the UK, who worked with people living in the zone to monitor and test the farming process and the results of the vodka-making.
The label for the vodka brand features a wild boar
They wrote a report to demonstrate that alcohol made from crops grown in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) and the Zone of Obligatory Resettlement is safe, with the single bottle of Atomik as the physical proof.
"From a radiological point of view it is safe to drink," said Jim Smith, who co-authored the report ...