Sale of helium poses supply risk, panel finds

[The Straight Story]

Sale of helium poses supply risk, panel finds

By JoAnne AllenPosted 2010/01/22 at 6:38 pm EST

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2010 (Reuters) — The sell-off of the federal strategic helium reserve has driven up demand for the vital element and poses a threat to the supply that researchers need, a panel of U.S. experts reported on Friday.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences recommends that Congress consider maintaining a reserve of the element crucial in research, space, medical and defense programs.

"The committee finds that selling off the helium reserve ... has adversely affected critical users of helium and is not in the best interest of the U.S. taxpayers or the country," the report said.

Congress in 1996 ordered the government to get out of the helium reserve business and sell it off to private industry. The law requiring the liquidation of the helium reserve, created in the 1920s, also called for evaluation by the National Academies to determine whether the sell-off hindered the work of U.S. researchers.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre60l692-us-helium-sale/

[Hannah Bell]

1. we have a helium reserve? & we've privatized it, too?

[The Straight Story]

3. I can see it now - party balloons restricted for national security

:)

[TxRider]

We basically have had the helium market cornered.

We have most of the worlds supply, and it is quite non reneweable.

"Helium is non-renewable and irreplaceable. Its properties are unique and unlike hydrocarbon fuels (natural gas or oil), there are no biosynthetic ways to make an alternative to helium. All should make better efforts to recycle it."

"Much of the world's supply of helium lies in a reserve in the Texas Panhandle, better known for the locales of Larry McMurtry's novels, such as "The Last Picture Show," and "Texasville," than as an elemental factory farm."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080102093943.htm

[Hannah Bell]

6. another apparent contradiction:

Nearly all helium on Earth is a result of radioactive decay, and thus an Earthly helium balloon is essentially a bag of retired alpha particles.

Helium is found in large amounts in minerals of uranium and thorium, including cleveite, pitchblende, carnotite and monazite, because they emit alpha particles (helium nuclei, He2+) to which electrons immediately combine as soon as the particle is stopped by the rock.

In this way an estimated 3000 tonnes of helium are generated per year throughout the lithosphere.<66><67><68>

In the Earth's crust, the concentration of helium is 8 parts per billion. In seawater, the concentration is only 4 parts per trillion.

There are also small amounts in mineral springs, volcanic gas, and meteoric iron.

Because helium is trapped in a similar way by non-permeable layer of rock like natural gas the greatest concentrations on the planet are found in natural gas, from which most commercial helium is derived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

[TxRider]

9. Helium is pretty rare

In usable concentrations.

"With further analysis, Cady and McFarland discovered that 1.84% of the gas sample was helium.<20><21> This showed that despite its overall rarity on Earth, helium was concentrated in large quantities under the American Great Plains, available for extraction as a byproduct of natural gas.<22> The greatest reserves of helium were in the Hugoton and nearby gas fields in southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma."

"For many years the United States produced over 90% of commercially usable helium in the world, while extraction plants in Canada, Poland, Russia, and other nations produced the remainder."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

We wouldn't sell any to Germany, which is why the Hindenburg used Hydrogen.



"There are 16 plants globally that extract helium from natural gas, but some are not running at full capacity, said John Van Sloun, worldwide helium general manager for Pennsylvania-based Air Products, which distributes a third of the world's helium supply."

"The Federal Helium Reserve, located near Amarillo, Texas, distributes another third of the world's helium supply, including 45% of the supply in the United States, said Hans Stuart of the Bureau of Land Management.

In 1996, the government decided it would get out of the helium business and the private sector would step in, Stuart said. The reserve will run out of the gas in 10 years, he added. "

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-02-Helium_N.htm

[Hannah Bell]

11. it's not "quite non reneweable".

[TxRider]

13. Put it this way

Much more non renewable than crude oil and natural gas are, and those are generally stated to be non renewable.

[Autumn]

2. Well no more

talking funny. Damn balloons just won't be the same.

[dysfunctional press]

4. if the helium supply is so limited- what's the point of researching/developing applications for it?

people will just have to find other ways to make their voice sound funny.



maybe somebody could develop a digital larnyx, for example...

[Bill McBlueState]

7. if you need to keep something at just a few Kelvin,

you do it with liquid helium.

Far-infrared astronomy is one application.

[dysfunctional press]

8. what are they going to use if/when it runs out...?

apparently they need to start thinking about that.

[Orrex]

5. Mr. President, we must not allow a helium gap!

[tomm2thumbs]

10. they tried to stop it, but their voices were too high to be heard

(they were inhaling)

when nearly anything of substance is being hoarded and manufactured outside our country, you'd think they'd start to wake up - thanks for posting this

[Greyhound]

12. Oh my, why couldn't anybody have seen this when the deal was first made?

Oh wait, this is exactly what the sane people said would happen.
:dunce: