Authorities Seize First Shipment of Alcoholic Spirit From Chernobyl

Authorities have seized and confiscated 1,500 bottles of Atomik, an artisanal alcoholic spirit made using apples grown near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, for reasons unknown.

Professor Jim Smith, who set up the Chernobyl Spirit Company after spending several years working in the disaster zone, revealed in a press release that the first experimental batch of Atomik was intercepted by authorities after leaving a distillery in northern Ukraine. The shipment was intended for delivery to the United Kingdom, but now “remains in the hands of Kyiv prosecutors”. Professor Smith said it was unclear why.

“It seems that they are accusing us of using forged Ukrainian excise stamps,” he claimed, “but this doesn’t make sense since the bottles are for the UK market and are clearly labelled with valid UK excise stamps”.

The Chernobyl Spirit Company is working hard to get the shipment released. Elina Smirnova, the lawyer representing them in court, said the seizure was in violation of Ukrainian law, and accused the authorities of targeting “a foreign company which has tried to establish an ethical ‘white’ business to primarily help Ukraine.”

“The actions of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are damaging the reputation of Ukraine as an open country for doing business,” Smirnova said. “We still believe that the truth will win.” 

Professor Smith and colleagues’ research in the Chernobyl exclusion zone aims to show that many areas thought to still be contaminated by the 1986 nuclear disaster can in fact be used to farm safe, consumable products.

“In many areas land could now be used to produce crops which are safe to eat,” reads a statement on the Atomik website. “As every chemist knows, distillation of fermented grain leaves many heavier elements in the waste product so the distillate alcohol is more radioactively ‘pure’ than the original grain. We have used distillation to reduce radioactivity in the grain even further to make a product from Chernobyl which we hope people will want to consume.”

The apples used to make Atomik were grown in the Narodychi district: one of the still-inhabited areas most affected by the disaster, which is subject to harsh restrictions around agriculture and development, the BBC reports. The spirit’s original recipe used rye grains, meaning it resembled a type of vodka.

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