First Chernobyl Vodka Batch Made From Nuclear Site Ingredients Seized By Police
Image via The Chernobyl Spirit Company
Back in 2019, scientists concocted an “artisan vodka” from the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the first consumer product since the nuclear explosion.
Named ‘Atomik’, the spirit was created with “slightly contaminated” crops grown from a farm in the exclusion zone, and was meant to help support communities still affected by the 1986 disaster.
However, authorities have seized the first batch of 1,500 bottles of ‘Atomik’ spirit. Professor Jim Smith, who founded the Chernobyl Spirit Company, said the first experimental batch of the alcohol was intercepted by authorities upon leaving a distillery in Northern Ukraine.
The shipment had been headed for the UK, but was seized by Kyiv City Prosecutors following an investigation by the Ukrainian Security Services.
The company is currently working with its lawyers to get the shipment released, and hopes “this issue can be resolved so that we can continue our work trying to help people affected by the devastating social and economic impacts Chernobyl had on communities.”
“We still believe that the truth will win,” said the company’s lawyer, Elina Smirnova.
Unfortunately, it seems the public won’t get to taste this special vodka concoction just yet.
[via Vice and The Chernobyl Spirit Company, cover image via The Chernobyl Spirit Company]
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