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I believe its mostly a myth that helium supplies are dwindling. Its a byproduct of natural gas production which is something the USA should be using more of any
by eej71 4y ago
I believe its mostly a myth that helium supplies are dwindling. Its a byproduct of natural gas production which is something the USA should be using more of anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_production_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_production_in_the_Unite...
- rippercushions 4y agoIt's a dwindling resource in the sense that it's not renewable (on human timescales, anyway) or reusable: once it's in the atmosphere, it's effectively gone.
- horseAMcharlie 4y agoWould expanded civilian nuclear power provide some kind of sustainable helium production as a side effect or do the numbers not work out?
- dsr_ 4y agoOnly if we change to fusion power, which is just fifty years away.
- skykooler 4y agoEven nuclear fusion doesn't produce helium in large amounts; a large fusion plant would produce about 2000 liters / day, meaning you'd need 136 years worth of output from one station to fill a single airlander airship.
- moffkalast 4y agoSame goes for fossil fuels, but that doesn't stop us from burning billions of tons of them per year like we have an infinite supply. And unlike fossil fuels that are (likely) only found on Earth, Helium is the second most common element in the universe and can be found literally everywhere once you're off planet. Plus we can technically manufacture it from radioactive decay.
- roelschroeven 4y ago> can be found literally everywhere once you're off planet In the vacuum of space, not enough to be harvested. Presumably the same for asteroids, moons and planets. Stars have lots and lots of helium, but good luck mining it.