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The coming shortage of helium and how government policy is creating it.
There's a mandate that sales cover the costs associated with the helium reserves, so they've lowered the price to increase the sales in the short run without regard to the long term strategic value of having a huge chunk of a limited world supply.
- cstuder 16y agoDammit, what shall I fill my blimp with now? Hot air?
- grinich 16y agoHydrogen!
- rmundo 16y agoI was just wondering earlier today how long world helium reserves could last. For airships a 90% reduction in carbon emissions won't matter if helium becomes the economic bottleneck. Sort of depressing how soon we seem to be reaching a point where depletion of earth resources is inevitable. Hydrogen would be interesting if we could make it safe enough. It could double as a fuel source for the ships, too.
- Groxx 16y agoUnless we find a way to make profitable fusion.
- Robin_Message 16y agoThat is a nasty linkbait-y retitling. As far as the Helium Privatisation Act goes, the government was being accused of "waste" in 1996 when it was sitting on a vast stockpile of helium (from prior military uses.) It decided to sell it off over a controlled period so as to not depress the price excessively and put private suppliers out of business. They gave themselves the deadline of 2015 to have it all sold, presumabley so as to reduce the government debt in a reasonable time frame. [1] Now it seems that helium is much more valuable but the price is depressed because this stockpile has to be sold by 2015. So something that made sense at the time now doesn't, and a new act is needed to say they can take longer to sell the helium. Government fail? Only if they don't change the policy. Oh, and the HPA almost unanimously approved by Congress (411-10, with 12 not voting.) [2] EDIT TO ADD: I am grumpy about this because titles like that generally go with the articles along the lines of "nasty government interfering with the market." But in this case, the report wants the government to be the government, to act strategically, not to sell at the market price but above it, and generally to interfere. The 1996 Act stopped the government doing its job in order to cut perceived waste and debt. The act should never have passed congress in the first place, or at least not in such a fixed way, but it did because it fitted people's stupid, prejudiced narrative that the government is too "big". [1] http://www.helium.com/items/874929-understanding-the-helium-privitization-act-of-1996 http://www.helium.com/items/874929-understanding-the-helium-... [2] http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/104/house/2/votes/137/ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/104/house/2/vote...
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago>So something that made sense at the time now doesn't, and a new act is needed to say they can take longer to sell the helium. This sort of thing shouldn't require an act of congress/parliament. A general rule of not selling >$Y of goods that are above X% of the yearly market without treasury approval would seem more sensible.
- stretchwithme 16y agoThe post office can't even stop delivering mail on Saturday without an act of Congress. The wheels of bureaucracy continue to turn despite whatever signals the market sends.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- phreeza 16y agoOK so how does one profit from this? I have tried to find a way to buy Helium futures before, but haven't been able to. Does anyone know where/how this is possible?
- mhb 16y agoWhy would you think that it's a better idea to buy helium now than it was to buy lithium before the recent discovery of large lithium deposits in Afghanistan?
- phreeza 16y agoI don't follow... More lithium was found, whereas helium is going to become scarce. What do the two have in common?
- harshpotatoes 16y agoWell, we could always find another large deposit of helium in some undiscovered salt mine. Unlikely, but there are still parts of the earth largely unsurveyed. So maybe. After that, maybe in 50 years we'll start mining helium3 from the moon, or producing it ourselves in a fusion reactor.
- phreeza 16y agoFrom what I understand, He-3 would actually be consumed in plausible energy-netting fusion reactions, which is the reason for the whole lunar mining speculation. I think prices would need to be pretty steep before lunar mining makes economic sense.
- harshpotatoes 16y agoThe reaction you're thinking of is: Deuterium + He3 -> proton + He4 + energy. So the reaction also yields helium. Helium is a very common product from fusion reactions. We can produce it now, just not in very large quantities. But cryogenics have money, and a need for helium, meaning they might be willing to pay for it being produced in such a way in the future.
- binarymax 16y agoIs helium being used not only because it is inert but for its other properties as well? I mean if an application just needs an inert gas could it use argon instead?
- phreeza 16y agoIt plays a big role in cryogenics, too. Helium is the standard way of cooling (non-HTC) superconductors down to operating temperature.
- narkee 16y agoRight on. MRIs need liquid helium to cool their superconducting magnet, and they need to be topped up every so often, to accommodate boil-off. It's getting pricier to do so, increasing the cost of an already expensive apparatus.
- blahblahblah 16y agoHelium is still essential for the operation of low temperature superconductors. Also, MRI experiments with hyperpolarized Helium-3 are an active area of research with potential applications for diagnostic medicine (visualization of the lungs).