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8th August 2019
01:45pm BST

Apparently the vodka (which is completely safe to drink, by the way) will be a massive stepping stone in helping the region recover financially.
According to professor Jim Smith, from the University of Portsmouth, the spirit, called Atomik, is “possibly the most important bottle of spirits in the world because it could help the economic recovery of communities living in and around the abandoned areas."
"Many thousands of people are still living in the Zone of Obligatory Resettlement where new investment and use of agricultural land is still forbidden," he told BBC News.
The plan is for the vodka to be brewed commercially through The Chernobyl Spirit Company, with 75 percent of the profits going directly back into the affected community.
Smith said that the aim is to give those living just outside the exclusion zone the chance to recover economically.
Here, radiation has become less of a health risk as time has gone on, meaning that agriculture could become a possibility again.
“We don’t think the main exclusion zone should be extensively used for agriculture as it is now a wildlife reserve but there are other areas where people live but agriculture is still banned," he said.
“Thirty-three years on, many abandoned areas could now be used to grow crops safely without the need for distillation."
Drink up then so.
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