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I would consider 117 years a pretty significant shortage.
by dajohnson89 10y ago
I 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).