restart

Dec. 22 (UPI) — Japan has approved Tokyo Electric Power Co. to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear site as the world’s largest nuclear power plant.

On Monday, the Niigata assembly backed Governor Hideyo Hanazumi’s decision to stay in office after approving the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in its first reactor restart since the Fukushima disaster more than a decade ago.

“We remain firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” ‌a Tepco spokesperson told The Japan Times.

The decision finalizes local approval to restart the plant.

Hanazumi will meet Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa on Tuesday to confirm the prefecture’s consent.

TEPCO intends to apply to the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority by Wednesday to restart its No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.

The utility aims to resume operations around Jan. 20 marking the facility’s first activity since shut down March 2012 a year after the Fukushima disaster.

On Nov. 21, Hanazumi approved restarting operations but said final approval depended on a vote by the prefectural assembly.

The assembly passed the measure with backing from the Liberal Democratic Party while opposition parties objected and called for a gubernatorial election or public referendum instead.

The Niigata provincial assembly in northern Japan approved a supplementary budget that included public relations funds for Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.

With consent already granted by the Kashiwazaki and Kariwa municipal governments, the vote cleared TEPCO’s final hurdle to resume operations.

Most of the plant’s power supplies the Tokyo area, but electric bills are expected to remain unchanged as TEPCO planned.

Meanwhile, Japan has restarted 14 of its 33 active nuclear plants to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.

JUST a few months after Ryanair stopped flying to a much-loved city in France, it has announced that it will in fact return next summer.

It was one of the destinations axed in Ryanair’s ongoing seat-cutting drive, due to increasing air tax in certain countries.

On July 30, 2025, Ryanair announced it would be stopping flights to the city of Bergerac.

But four and a half months on, Ryanair has released tickets for six routes from the UK to Bergerac Dordogne Périgord Airport in summer 2026.

Flights are now bookable on its website from March 29, 2026 until October 24, 2026.

These routes are set to fly from London Stansted, Liverpool, East Midlands, Bristol, Bournemouth and Edinburgh.

SNOW WAY

All the best Xmas days out under £10 including FREE ice skating & Santa’s grotto

CHRIMBO WIN

Enter these travel comps before Xmas to win £2k holidays, ski trips & spa stays

Bergerac is a commune in the Dordogne region in the southwest of France, known for its old town and riverside cafe and outdoor markets.

While it’s a popular winter destination, Bergerac is a great place to go in summer as it gets highs of 30C in July and August.

Other popular summer activities include wine tasting at local vineyards and visiting nearby châteaus.

Popular sites in the city include the Statue of Cyrano de Bergerac in a small square which is surrounded by restaurants.

Other visitors explore Place de la Myrpe a neighbourhood which one person described as ‘Bergerac’s ancient heart’ with old brick and timber-lined buildings.

And the Eglise Notre-Dame is what visitors call ‘a beautiful church’ in the city centre.

Following the announcement that Ryanair would be pulling out of Bergerac back in July of this year, the airport in Bergerac announced that it may be forced to close.

Ryanair said in a statement that the decision to stop routes to these cities is because of the French government’s decision to increase air tax by 180 per cent.

The airline added: “In response to this government tax, Ryanair will cease operations to Bergerac, Brive, and Strasbourg, and reduce capacity at several other French airports.”

In early December 2025, Ryanair announced it would be scrapping even more flights over the next two years.

The budget airline confirmed that one million seats will be scrapped to and from Brussels from the 2026/27 winter schedule next year.

The airline said the cuts were due to the rise in air passenger tax being introduced in Belgium.

Here are details on more flights that Ryanair is axing in 2026…

Back in September, Ryanair confirmed that they would cancel all flights to three Spanish airports – Tenerife North, Vigo and Santiago.

Just a month later, another 1.2million seats were scrapped across Spain, affecting summer 2026 travel.

Rising airport tariffs were cited for the cancellations, with Michael O’Leary claiming he would “fly elsewhere […] if the costs in regional Spain are too high”.

He added: “We are better off flying at the same cost to places such as Palma [on the island of Majorca] than flying to Jerez.”

French airports Bergerac, Brive, and Strasbourg have also lost their Ryanair flights while airports in Germany including Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig will not open for winter.

And next year, Ryanair will stop all its flights to and from the Azores, citing high ATC fares in Portugal.

For more on Ryanair, these are the 15 destinations being AXED across Europe in 2026 – is one on your bucket list?

If one of your favourite routes operated by Ryanair has been scrapped – check out these five alternative holiday destinations.