Nuclear power and renewables are forecast to be the world's fastest growing energy sources. Small highly efficient, modular reactors can be made to suit demand. Currently 440 nuclear reactors are in operation worldwide. In France 70 per cent of their total electricity generation is derived from nuclear sources.

In recent years more reactors have been closed, primarily due to ageing, than opened, however overall capacity has increased.

Nuclear waste disposal is currently being considered by the government, presumably in readiness for the installation of future reactors, the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF), is to provide a centralised location for the disposal of radioactive waste.

Whether we like it or not, circumstances dictate that in order to satisfy a reliable base load requirement we will have to make do with a mix of renewables and nuclear for the foreseeable future.

So the Coates Inquiry into the Victorian Hotel Quarantine debacle is unable to say who made the decision to employ inadequately trained and supervised security guards in a multimillion-dollar contract.

As a result some 801 people died, accounting for 90 per cent of Australia's total COVID-19 deaths.

If the Victorian government had wanted a total whitewash of this farce it could have done no better than what it did. That is to employ an ex-Family Court judge and then release the whitewashed report just before Christmas, the traditional time to bury something.

I wish any future class action total success. At least then we might get to the truth.

As temperatures soar all over the country please remember that dogs should never be left in parked vehicles, which can become death traps in a matter of minutes.

Even on a 22 degree day the temperature in a car in the shade can soar to 47 degrees in minutes. Leaving the windows open will not keep animals comfortable or safe.

Dogs can succumb to heatstroke in as little as 15 minutes. Symptoms include restlessness, excessive thirst, heavy panting, lethargy, diarrhoea and vomiting, and even seizures.

When it's warm outside leave animals at home. If you see a dog left in a car, have the car's owner paged at nearby shops or call 000 immediately, the dog's life depends on it.

Two writers have already objected to Michael Pettersson's private members bill on the grounds that he didn't campaign on the issue (Letters, December 16 and 17).

This seems to be either confected outrage or an ignorance of the man's politics. He is the representative who introduced the legislation legalising possession of cannabis in the ACT, he has been a strong supporter of pill testing, and he spoke in the ACT Legislative Assembly in August on his desire to see addictive drugs decriminalised. His views are hardly a secret.

Unlike Sid Sainsbury (Letters, December 17) I did know before the election that Michael Pettersson was an advocate for a change to the way we handle personal use of drugs.

Evidence has shown for decades that our present illicit drug laws are a failure on all counts and at last we have a politician with the courage and good sense to call it.

While I have an open mind about the proposed extension of drug decriminalisation, I find the appeal by Fred Pilcher (Letters, December 17) to "the lesson that US prohibition should have taught us" to be misplaced.

US prohibition showed that when something (alcoholic beverages) that has been in longstanding and widespread use throughout all levels of society is banned there will be extensive disobedience, creating a large market for criminal supply.

If demand for (much more narrowly consumed) illicit drugs can't be eliminated there will be criminal supply but that will remain so unless supply itself is to be legalised.

Indeed, one would expect the measure to increase demand for that criminal supply. If anything, the US Prohibition experience cautions us that, should this occur to a disturbing degree, there might be no going back.

Bill Deane (Letters, December 22) misses the point. The fact all Australian states and territories, and more than 113 other countries, have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060 (many climate scientists now insist that the target date should be 2030) speaks for itself.

If Mr Deane is looking for a means of reaching those goals, he need look no farther than Adam Triggs' article "A govt inquiry into the obvious" (December 22, p25). Phasing out the burning of coal, a major cause of global warming, is a powerful, market-driven means of realising net-zero emissions.

Dave Roberts (Letters, December 16) makes the important point the "Spanish flu" of 100 years ago was far more deadly than the COVID-19 we now endure, and what is relevant is not the deaths but the incapacity of the survivors.

I would be glad to see reports of numbers emerging from hospitalisation, rather than "numbers of cases", which I suspect only refers to numbers of individuals testing positive.

An analysis of patients who actually return to work, or their well-being in other respects, would be more interesting to me.

It appears the Morrison government has one rule that favours the very wealthy and corporate fat cats, and another for the rest of us. Laws are being made that require the mega corporations like Google and Facebook to negotiate payment for the media content they use online to the media organisations that produce it.

In the absence of agreement the dispute is to be referred to compulsory, independent arbitration to determine a fair price. Rupert Murdoch will be a beneficiary of these ground breaking, and generally welcome, laws.

Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of workers, who toil for wages in jobs that keep the country running, but who have little or no bargaining power. In the absence of agreement over wages and conditions these workers get nothing out of the enterprise bargaining system. Why the double standard?

Shouldn't the ordinary worker have access to arbitration to fix the price of their labour in the same way as the plutocrats?

David Osmond's claim (Letters, December 16) that our existing hydro electricity generation plants can meet the shortfall that can occur in wind power generation over extended periods during winter months is incorrect.

The 2.6 gigawatts of generator capacity in Tasmania is limited by the Basslink cable to delivering 500 megawatts to the mainland.

Until Snowy 2 becomes operational there is only 600 megawatts of pumped hydro capacity amongst the existing 4.1 gigawatts of generator capacity of the Snowy Mountains scheme. That scheme has the primary role of water management and so cannot be relied upon as a continuously available form of energy storage.

The Morrison government's funding of a second Bass Strait cable and the Snowy 2 pumped hydro scheme will redress this situation to some degree.

The most common role of the Hornsdale battery is to combat a problem that has been brought about by the move to renewable energy, with the inertia of heavy rotating turbines no longer available to dampen grid transients.

Whether very large scale battery storage becomes a reality is yet to be seen.

"Columns are cheaper than beams", "steel is cheaper and quicker than concrete", and "steel doesn't corrode in Canberra" go three old engineering adages. So, in the tradition of the spectacular historic McKillops Bridge over the Snowy River, and the similar Taemus Bridge over the Murrumbidgee above Burrinjuck, the new one over the Lower Molonglo should have short-span open-web steel trusses, readily prefabricated here, or in say, Young. It'd up and running much quicker and cheaper than the dreary long-span concrete one announced recently.

When will the Coalition take seriously just how important rural communities are to this country? The current minister for transport and infrastructure is totally inept. First they took away our transport system and then we we lost our doctors. This government is killing rural Australia.

We're told in the headlines the new COVID-19 restrictions will separate families at Christmas and stuff up sport. Maybe we should be thinking about how many Christmases we've had with family and how many we want in the future rather than adopting an American-like "it's all about me" attitude. As for sport, there are more important things to worry about.

It is time for federal and state governments to remove all exceptions to COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements. No sports people, no celebrities, no diplomats and no "special friends" should be exempt if Australia wants to control this epidemic.

If Scott Morrison is still wondering why he was refused the opportunity to speak at the recent Climate Ambition Summit to clear up some mistruths it was because "you've got to have a go to get a go".

I have been listening with dismay to Labor luminaries' calls for appeasement in our relationship with China. History shows such lack of national assertiveness will only result in further deceit, bullying and aggression towards Australia.

The Blue Mountains, Nepean and the Shoalhaven all mysteriously disappeared from the ACT government's original list of areas having 14 days quarantine requirements for returning ACT residents on Monday? Why?

Why do people wait for governments to tell them what to do? Ie to mandate masks, impose lockdowns or request them to avoid travel? Doing what is right is simple. The rewards are huge. Masks, social distancing and hand sanitiser. How hard can it be?

Seriously? A brand is taken to court for saying its activewear is "anti-virus". There will always be marketers trying to take advantage of any crisis. But why? Because there are still gullible idiots to prey on. Anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers still walk among us remember.

The overreaction by Labor premiers in closing borders is causing suffering and sadness for many hoping to be reunited with families for Christmas. It exposes the real problem with the left in Australia. They always overreact; they are negative people with negative outlooks.

The NSW outbreak will be contained. Gladys is on to it, not Dan or Donald. We're going to be okay.

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