This Vodka Is Made With Radioactive Ingredients From Chernobyl

Daisy Hernandez
·2 min read
Photo credit: MediaProduction - Getty Images
Photo credit: MediaProduction - Getty Images

  • For the adventurous imbiber, meet Atomik vodka, a spirit made with radioactive ingredients from Chernobyl.

  • Want to try the vodka? You'll have to wait until production increases, as only one bottle currently exists.

  • The team behind the vodka wants to use it to improve the economies of cities surrounding Chernobyl's exclusion zone.

Capitalizing on this year's renewed interest in the worst nuclear accident in history, booze makers have introduced Atomik, the world's first vodka made from distilled grains from Chernobyl's exclusion zone.

Atomik may sound misguided at first, but the distillers have good intentions. Gennady Laptev, a scientist at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute and a cofounder of the Chernobyl Spirit Company, says making use of the abandoned land at the disaster site will aid in reviving the economy for struggling cities in the surrounding area.

"We don't have to just abandon the land," Laptev tells the BBC. "We can use it in diverse ways and we can produce something that will be totally clean from the radioactivity," he continued.

Chernobyl Spirit Company chose vodka because the contaminated radioactive ingredients would be purified in the distillation process. Jim Smith, Ph.D., a professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth who is also involved with the Chernobyl Spirit Company, told the BBC that Atomik is "no more radioactive than any other vodka."

Distillers used water from a Chernobyl aquifer and "slightly contaminated" rye grains to create the vodka. They then sent the spirit to a lab at Southampton University to make sure it didn't contain any radioactive contaminants that were still unsafe. "Everything was below their limit of detection," Smith said.

As for what the stuff tastes like, the BBC says it's more or less your typical house vodka. But you can't try Atomik just yet: Though Chernobyl Spirit Company hopes to produce 500 bottles by the end of the year, only one bottle exists right now.

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