Helium running out

[SupremeSpod]

This was in last weeks New Scientist...

Updates; October 2007; Scientific American Magazine; by Philip Yam; 1 Page(s)
Helium prices have doubled in the past five years. The high demand is not exactly coming from people with party balloons to fill. Rather helium cools the superconducting coils of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices, and the sale of those machines has grown tremendously, driving the demand for helium up by 25 percent since 2003. In contrast, helium production has increased by only about half as much.
In 2006 the U.S. sold 23,000 metric tons of helium, which filled 71 percent of the world's helium needs (Algeria and Russia supplied most of the rest). At least one third of the U.S.'s contribution came from the federal helium reserve. Started in 1961, when helium was considered to be a crucial military and technological resource, the stockpile had grown by 1996 to 170,000 metric tons, stored mostly in porous rock beds in the Cliffside gas field near Amarillo, Tex. As part of an effort to privatize government programs, a 1996 act mandated the sale of all but 2,900 tons by 2015. As a result, according to a 2000 National Academy of Sciences report, the total U.S. helium resources will disappear by 2035--probably sooner, because of rising demand. "If within the next five years, new sources of helium are not brought to market, there will be a helium shortage" if demand continues to grow at current rates, says Joseph Peterson of the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages the reserve. Recycling of this rare and nonrenewable resource may need to improve greatly to prevent shortfalls.

That's us bolloxed then, eh?

Oh well.

Tax on balloons? Anyone?

[doodab]

I love breathing helium from balloons and talking in a squeaky voice.

[NotAllThere]

Damn helium cost me at an 18+ month contract once. I was taken on as an engineer on a project to provide the training simulator for a gas plant. A couple of months into the project they found the gas contained huge quantities of helium and its peculiar phyical properties turned the simulation of phase equilibrium and flow from a fairly straightforward task into a nightmare. Basically, a small change in temperature can cause a really large change in phase which in turn impacts flow. The simulation company decided there was no way they could meet the required strictures on accuracy and model stability and walked and out of the project.

I hate Helium. Exterminate!

Now say it with a funny squeaky voice.



The yanks' stockpile is sold off at a ridiculously low price. When that runs out expect a kids helium balloon to cost ~£100

[Advocate]

This was in last weeks New Scientist...

[Doggy Styles]

I thought helium was a byproduct of radioactive decay of certain natural isotopes? Otherwise, wouldn't it all have disappeared long ago?

Yes, IIRC alpha particles are helium nucleii.

[d000hg]

I thought helium was a byproduct of radioactive decay of certain natural isotopes? Otherwise, wouldn't it all have disappeared long ago?

[Spacecadet]

Helium... reacts with nothing and tends to escape/evaporate from the atmosphere when released.
The yanks have known (or at least did know) about the finite supply for years hence the huge stockpile of it...

[northernladuk]

World helium reserves are running out, Nobel laureate claims - Telegraph

Damn helium cost me at an 18+ month contract once. I was taken on as an engineer on a project to provide the training simulator for a gas plant. A couple of months into the project they found the gas contained huge quantities of helium and its peculiar phyical properties turned the simulation of phase equilibrium

and flow from a fairly straightforward task into a nightmare. Basically, a small change in temperature can cause a really large change in phase

Yawn

which in turn impacts flow. The simulation company decided there was no way they could meet the required strictures on accuracy and model stability and walked and out of the project.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

I hate Helium. Exterminate!

[xoggoth]

World helium reserves are running out, Nobel laureate claims - Telegraph

Damn helium cost me at an 18+ month contract once. I was taken on as an engineer on a project to provide the training simulator for a gas plant. A couple of months into the project they found the gas contained huge quantities of helium and its peculiar phyical properties turned the simulation of phase equilibrium and flow from a fairly straightforward task into a nightmare. Basically, a small change in temperature can cause a really large change in phase which in turn impacts flow. The simulation company decided there was no way they could meet the required strictures on accuracy and model stability and walked and out of the project.

I hate Helium. Exterminate!