Japanese Whisky and Fukushima

In March 2011 a nuclear catastrophe happened in the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima I. The incident was classified as the second-worst nuclear accident, following the disaster of Chernobyl in the year 1986. The press often depicted the aftermath as very dramatic: claims like, “you can never travel to Japan again”, “cars will be delivered contaminated” and “Japanese Whisky is no longer drinkable” could be read or heard. But it was not as bad as proclaimed. Some press and media are known for their exaggerations to sell more copies.

We don’t want to play down the matter: the reactor incident of Fukushima was a terrible catastrophe. And we will deal with the aftermath for centuries. But we don’t have the same opinion about Japanese Whisky, as the press.

There are many things to consider before deciding on wether to buy Japanese Whisky again.

There is no doubt. But we have to go back a little bit, to explain the influence of radioactive rays on Whisky.

In the year 2002, the Scottish distillery Macallan bought collectors bottles from Italian Independent Fillers on eBay. The contents of these bottles were filled into Macallan bottles and sold for 250€ each. Whether it was original Macallan or Italian Whisky, was not clear for the buyers. To identify the contents, the radiation in the bottles was measured.

But how will the radiation determine which Whisky is in the bottle? And how does it get in there in the first place? Radioactive contamination was an effect of the atomic bomb tests around the world in the 60s. As a consequence, cornfields everywhere had a slight amount of radiation. The test results for the alleged Macallan bottles were not in their favour. The tests proofed: the Whisky couldn’t be from a time before the nuclear bomb tests in the '60s. The malt must’ve been made out of grain that was cultivated later than the 60s; it could not be from the time the bottles claimed: 1950.

Even Bavaria, where our headquarters are located, was affected by a reactor accident a few years ago. In the year of 1986, a disaster happened in the reactor of the nuclear power plant Chernobyl (Ukraine). The radiation rose to the atmosphere and came back down in the form of rain – also in Bavaria. Back then Horst Lüning bought a Geiger counter to measure the radiation. But the Geiger counter did not detect any radioactive rays. That’s because most of the radiation was absorbed bit by bit by the environment. The radiation is in the ground, and we only consume it, when we eat plants, which were cultivated in those soils. Limits values and controls for radiation are therefore very important for us consumers. We’re exposed to gamma rays on airplanes and through bricks made out of clay. You can see: There are enough radioactive rays in our everyday life. The question is, how much we can stand. Also a question for our Whisky. Is the radiation we are exposed to as harmful as claimed? Japan was already hit by two nuclear bombs in World War II and was affected by high radiation: The terrible catastrophes of Hiroshima in the south and Nagasaki in the southwest, which cost many lives. But despite that, Japanese people are getting older than most people in western countries. Of course, more factors affect human life expectancies like diet, lifestyle, and many others.

We don’t want to gloss over the tragedy of Fukushima. But it is not like you can’t or shouldn not buy Japanese products like the media often suggested. It’s way worse for the surrounding region of the close 100 kilometers: Sadly there will be many cases of cancer and death.