From promotional materials for Atomik Vodka.

The Chernobyl Spirit Company is a social enterprise aiming to produce high-quality artisan spirits (“moonshine”) from land in the areas of Ukraine abandoned after the Chernobyl accident.

Our group of Ukrainian and U.K. scientists has been studying the transfer of radioactivity to crops both in the main Exclusion Zone and in the Narodychi District within the Zone of Obligatory Resettlement, where land can’t officially be used for agriculture but where people still live.

Research shows that in many areas land can now be used to produce crops that are safe to eat. As every chemist knows, the distillation of fermented crops leaves many heavier elements in the waste products, so the distillate alcohol is much more radioactively “pure” than the original grain. We have used distillation to reduce radioactivity in the crops even further to make a product from Chernobyl that we hope people will want to consume.