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New helium is generated by alpha decay, and it comes up in natural gas wells that happen to be located in areas with natural radioactivity.
by greglindahl 10y ago
New helium is generated by alpha decay, and it comes up in natural gas wells that happen to be located in areas with natural radioactivity.
- mikeash 10y agoNot much, though. A quick perusal of Wikipedia (buyer beware, etc.) indicates that about 3,000 tons of helium are generated per year through radioactive decay (that's all happening in assorted rocks throughout the Earth's crust, so much of it wouldn't be easy to recover, either) while current production rates are around 9,000 tons per year.
- greglindahl 10y agoA natural gas well has 10s of millions of years of helium accumulation from its local area.
- mikeash 10y agoRight, which means that while it's renewable over geological timescales, it's more or less a fixed reserve in human timescales. Much like oil.
- kobeya 10y agoAvogadro's number is very big: 6e22.
- ridgeguy 10y agoIt's even bigger than that: ~ 6e23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant
- kobeya 10y agoThank you.
- awesomebob 10y agolos grandes avogadro's :)