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Good thing there isn't a global shortage of extractable helium.
by excalibur 10y ago
Good thing there isn't a global shortage of extractable helium.
- jessriedel 10y agoThere isn't. There is a robust market in Helium, and its price represents the cost of bothering to recover the large quantities that are produced (and generally vented) as a by product of oil extraction. We could have much more helium if we wanted to pay for it, but it's not worth it. https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/06/18/were-really-not-about-to-run-out-of-helium-no-please-stop-it-were-not/#6f6f3ade13b6 https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/06/18/were-rea... https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-inflated/ https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-in... > In 2014, the US Department of Interior estimated that there are 1,169 billion cubic feet of helium reserves left on Earth. That’s enough for about 117 more years.
- dajohnson89 10y agoI would consider 117 years a pretty significant shortage.
- killjoywashere 10y agoProven oil reserves have been at more or less 30 years for the last 60 years. So, take the 117 with a grain of salt. Especially since a significant amount of that helium is sourced from oil.
- jessriedel 10y agoThose are the reserves we currently know about, extractable with current technology and at current prices.
- dajohnson89 10y agoYou do realize that it's rational to make conclusions based on available evidence, right?
- dethswatch 10y agoYes, but that's similar to worrying about running out of whales in the second half of the 1800's.
- witty_username 10y agoPeople will store helium if there's a risk of shortage. That's how markets work.
- jandrese 10y agoMaybe in 100 years we will have fusion power plants everywhere producing Helium. :) We will need something because fossil fuels are not sustainable. In 100 years we should be pumping much less oil than we do today. This also means finding substitutes for all of the byproducts of oil production.
- XorNot 10y agoFusion plants in the 1GW range will have at most a couple of grams of fuel in them at any given time (though looks like ITER expects to use 250 KG per year collectively - still though, not a lot).
- fapjacks 10y agoAdditionally, a huge field of Helium was discovered this year in Tanzania [0], drastically increasing the amount of Helium we have available to extract. [0] http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36651048 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36651048
- runeks 10y agoWell said. Let's, for a moment, take a step back, and appreciate the fact that there is no global shortage of extractable helium.