Atomik seizure

Ukranian authorities recently seized over 1,500 bottles of Atomik Apple Spirit distilled from apples grown near the Chernobyl atomic power plant.

Comprising as it does both grain and water from Chernobyl’s atomic exclusion zone, the producer – The Chernobyl Spirits Company – claims it to be the first consumer product to emerge from the area since the nuclear disaster there in 1986.

The bottles of Atomik were seized en route to the UK where Jim Smith, a professor of Environmental Science and founder of The Chernobyl Spirits Company, wondered why the bottles were seized at all.

For while the fruit used was from the Narodychi district (which, despite being heavily polluted by the explosion 35 years ago, is still inhabited) and may have been “slightly” radioactive, he declared that the spirit itself is safe to drink.

According to a recent report in USA Today, “Smith has studied the nuclear accident for over 30 years and his company claims they use distillation to reduce radioactivity in the grain which shows much of the land in the exclusion zone can ‘now be used to produce crops which are safe to eat’.”

Back in August 2019 he told the BBC that studies showed the rye was below the limit of radioactive detection.

“We’re working hard to set up a business to help bring jobs and investment to the Chernobyl-affected areas of Ukraine and to further support the community with 75% of any profits we make,” he said.