Tuesday, 28 January, 2025 / Edition 43

And just like that, we’re almost done with January! Holy moly. I feel like this one has gone by at record speed. Is that true for you too?

This week, I go over some hot developments in the world of nuclear fusion and a bit of an exciting—but scary—development in the world of bio-engineered bacteria. Let’s dig in!

Sarah Compton

Editor, Enspired

China’s “Artificial Sun” Reactor Reaches Plasma Temp of 180 Million Degrees Fahrenheit

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Americans have called parts of Asia “the far East,” but now, EAST takes on a new meaning with China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor.

Driving the news: Last week, EAST hit a monumental milestone—it sustained a plasma temperature above 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius) for 1,006 seconds, a period just shorter than 17 minutes.

Why it matters: EAST is part of China’s “artificial sun” project, which aims to commercialize nuclear fusion reactors.

That temperature from the “artificial sun” is more than six times hotter than the core of the real sun and might have finally created a place on Earth that’s warmer than somewhere I’d like to live.

Chinese scientists claim EAST is now capable of replicating a future nuclear fusion power plant.

• EAST is 11 meters high, 8 meters in diameter, and weighs more than 400 tonnes.

• It is a standard tokamak design, with a magnet inside a toroid.

• It has four types of high-powered radio frequency heating systems, equivalent to tens of thousands of microwave ovens. Maybe it could finally get the inside of a Hot Pocket unfrozen 😉.

• Lithium wall conditioning has routinely been used to reduce both impurity and hydrogen recycling.

EAST’s achievements contribute to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor program (ITER) and the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR).

ITER, which is being built in southern France, will be the world’s largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment device and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.

EAST is a prototype very near to the ITER tokamak, and thus, it can serve ITER advanced research in terms of engineering technology and physics.

It sounds like even the most optimistic estimation of when the first commercialization of ITER will be is at least half a century.

Geoscientists will still need to pursue other avenues of energy generation in the meantime, but we will also continue the search for the favored fuel of fusion—hydrogen.

To learn more about EAST, go here. To learn more about ITER, check this out.

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The Rise of Plastic-Eating Bacteria

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Not too long ago, I wrote about photocatalysts breaking down plastics.

I must have been in tune with the universe, because I recently heard an incredible radio broadcast about University of Waterloo researchers in Canada altering DNA in bacteria so that the bacteria can break down plastics.

“Think of these bacteria—which already exist in water systems to clean up microplastics—as bio-robots that can be programmed to get the job done,” said Dr. Marc Aucoin, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. 

Admittedly, part of the reason this story imprinted on my mind was because of the immediate red flags:

1. I felt like this was out of episode of “Black Mirror.”

2. If these bacteria can break down plastics…what else can they break down?

3. Not to overstate the sci-fi and apocalyptic elements, but bio-engineering bacteria to be intentionally released into wastewater treatment plants sounds like the beginning of innumerable zombie movies.

But as I set my fears temporarily aside and kept listening, here’s what I learned:

• The bacteria would target polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic found in carpet, clothing, and food and beverages containers that can take hundreds of years to degrade.

• Over time, PETs typically break down into microplastics—pieces of plastic less than 5 milimeters long. These enter the food chain and contain chemicals that are associated with insulin resistance, cancer, and decreased reproductive health. Yikes!

Current studies are investigating safety concerns and how well the plastic-eating trait in this bacterium will be passed along when the bacteria multiply.

• “We will assess the risks of using engineered, plastic-eating bacteria in the natural environment,” said Aaron Yip, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

• “Right now, microplastic degradation in wastewater treatment plants is a safer application to target. Many of these facilities are already designed to neutralize bacteria in wastewater, which would kill any engineered bacteria prior to discharging water back into the environment,” Yip added.

Obviously, geoscientists have a role to play here, as we are trained to understand and research nutrient and chemical transport in water through a natural system. We can measure the bacteria’s effectiveness, and if the little critters were to ever get out, we might be the first ones to know.

Arguably unnecessary fear-mongering aside, this tech is very cool and holds great promise. To learn more, go here.

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✉️ To get in touch with Sarah or suggest a topic for Enspired, send an email to editorial@aapg.org.