Ukraine launched a new nuclear reactor Sunday in a move President Leonid Kuchma said confirmed the former Soviet republic's increasing independence from energy supplied by neighboring Russia

Ukraine launched a new nuclear reactor Sunday in a move President Leonid Kuchma said confirmed the former Soviet republic's increasing independence from energy supplied by neighboring Russia. "Reactor number two is now is service," Kuchma said in televised remarks from the western Ukrainian town of Khlemnitsky where the reactor was launched. "This is a new step in reinforcing the independence of our state energy sector," Kuchma said. Construction of the second reactor at the nuclear plant in the Western Ukrainian city was launched shortly after a controversial government decision last month that the reactor posed no hazard to the local environment. The first reactor was launched in 1987 -- one year after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that was hushed up for days by the former Soviet state. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has issued 42 million dollars in a loan to secure the two new Ukrainian reactors' safety. Ukraine otherwise depends on oil and gas supplies from Russia and has been trying to cut those ties as it negotiates closer relations with the European Union and the United states.