| From the people who gave you Air Ukraine. |
Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, launched a new atomic reactor Sunday, and a second reactor is set to open later this year, a news agency reported. President Leonid Kuchma, joined by other top officials, attended the startup of reactor No. 2 at the Khmelnitskyi plant in western Ukraine. Kuchma gave the order to the reactor's staff to "raise the capacity of the .... power unit up to the commercial load," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. A new reactor at the Rivne nuclear power plant, also in the west, is set to be completed later this year. The European Union pledged to finance safety upgrades at both reactors through an $83 million loan. The money will be in addition to a $42 million program recently approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the same purpose. Ukraine has committed to modernizing its 13 operating nuclear reactors. The former Soviet republic shuttered Chernobyl, site of the 1986 accident, but is asking Western donors for an additional $350 million to replace a shelter securing the destroyed reactor.
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