Grains and water from Chernobyl’s dreaded exclusion zone have been used to produce a single bottle of vodka.
A collaboration involving scientists from the UK and Ukraine has produced radioactive-free vodka from crops grown in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, according to a University of Portsmouth press release.
Jim Smith, a professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth, led the project.
Part science, part promotional stunt, the project is meant to demonstrate a possible way in which land in and around the damaged nuclear power plant can be put to good use, namely through the growing of crops.
The producers of this single bottle of vodka are hoping it could lead to something far grander – the revitalisation of a traditional Ukrainian industry in a region beset by economic distress.
“More than thirty years after the accident, we believe that what these areas need most is economic development and management of the unique wildlife resource the abandoned areas represent,” declares the Chernobyl Spirit Company’s website.
The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl remains the worst nuclear accident in human history, leaving a 1,000 square mile region of the Ukraine uninhabitable since 1986.
While some have continued to live there and tourists flock to the radioactive zone in droves (thanks to HBO's fantastic series), the surrounding areas have been reclaimed by nature.
Now, the BBC reports, a team of scientists have produced the first consumer product out of the exclusion zone since the nuclear disaster: An artisan vodka dubbed "Atomik".
While many traditionally think of vodka as produced from potatoes, these days most vodka is made from grains such as wheat and rye.
James Smith, an environmental scientist from the University of Portsmouth, is part of the team at Chernobyl Spirit Company and has published numerous studies discussing the effects of radioactive pollutants, with a focus on accidental releases.
"Our Atomik grain spirit came from an experiment we were doing to see how much radioactivity transferred into different crops in the Exclusion Zone 30 years after the accident," he says, via email.
On April 25, 1986, the reactor staff at Chernobyl began a safety test.
Resulted in series of explosions and a fire in the core of the reactor and a large cloud of highly radioactive particles exploded in the atmosphere and was blown across Europe.
The explosion released more radiation than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
Most of the explosive material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried away by wind over the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and to some extent over Europe and Scandinavia.
30 years after the incidence, Chernobyl day tours are now being offered from Kiev to the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Finally, you visit Pripyat, the town which was evacuated because of poisonous radiations.
