6 ms·
Why is it for sale?
by runeofdoom 3y ago
Why is it for sale?
- nathanfig 3y agoHad to scroll past a ton of doomsayers and jokes to find this obvious question. I'd like to understand the decision before speculating the meaning.
- achates 3y agoThe top voted comment is always some variation of "capitalism bad".
- VygmraMGVl 3y ago10 years ago, Congress decided we needed to transition off of it. Large amounts of the stockpile were sold off from 2013-2018 and this is the final part of the plan. https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/helium/federal-helium-program https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/helium/fede...
- nathanfig 3y agoThanks!
- hypercube33 3y agoTransition off of it? Dont we need it for superconducting coolant and some other things?
- bonestamp2 3y agoYes. MRI machines need it, although I guess that kind of falls into the superconductor category. But I call that use case out because it's probably a good idea to have the government, or some trusted caretaker, look after at least two strategic stockpiles.
- westurner 3y agoFWIU Nuclear Fusion can use (and produce) 4He ('He4') as fuel. I think it makes sense to retain our nation's helium reserves.
- twarge 3y agoYou are thinking of helium-3, of which there is none stored here. It is very much harder to fuse helium-4.
- westurner 3y agoI think it's both Helium-3 and Helium-4? (Tritium (3H) decays into 3He with a 12 year half life. Before 12*n years, tritium is radioactive and denser than water and so it will pool and concentrate in ocean cavities for example at the seafloor. Tritium also probably has affinity for certain types of trash floating in the ocean, which Seabin and The Ocean Cleanup are addressing.) Is laser-based nuclear transmutation of e.g. He4 into He3 easier with the high heat of a nuclear fusion reaction? Helion's fusion process involves both He3 and He4: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37403522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37403522
- 93po 3y agoCynical take: People in congress have wealthy contacts that want to buy and profit from this, and likely include the congress member as part of the profit sharing in some concealed manner Generous take: congress recognizes government entities are inefficient and do a poor job at things like properly pricing and providing goods and services, which is explicitly outlined as a reason congress gave: selling it at market-driven prices They give other reasons but there's basically zero reason to trust them. The truth is likely somewhere between the two takes above.
- parineum 3y agoActually, both need to be true, to an extent. Government being inefficient is required for private companies to have any interest in ownership because profit is the incentive to solve market inefficiency. If the government was doing an awesome job, the private sector wouldn't have any interest.
- bhickey 3y agoOr someone wants to exploit a natural monopoly.
- echelon 3y ago> If the government was doing an awesome job, the private sector wouldn't have any interest. Or, if the government was doing an awesome job, the private sector might want to get rid of public sector price ceilings. The private tax prep lobby wants to keep the government out of tax filing. Logistics companies want to kill the USPS.
- mikecoles 3y agoThe uranium capacity was already sold off. Another source of income was needed.