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World reserves are 40 billion cubic meters, yearly production is 175 million cubic meters. It seems we have 200 years supply. And it's a renewable resource (pro

by monort 12y ago

World reserves are 40 billion cubic meters, yearly production is 175 million cubic meters. It seems we have 200 years supply. And it's a renewable resource (produced during radioactive decay), and universe has a lot of helium, 23% of its baryonic mass.

fit2rule 12y ago
Yeah, we can all quote from Wikipedia. Here's another interesting quote about Helium: *Moses Chan, Evan Pugh Professor of Physics at Penn State, explains that the world's supply of helium is a byproduct of natural gas production, with the Texas Panhandle arguably being the helium capital of the world. However, says Chan, "Very few natural gas wells in the world have enough helium in the well to make it economical to separate helium from natural gas. The gas wells with the most helium have only about 0.3 percent, so it is in short supply." In response to the element's scarcity, the United States has been stockpiling helium since the 1960s in a National Helium Reserve called the Bush Dome, a deep underground reservoir outside of Amarillo, Texas. By the mid 1970s 1.2 billion cubic meters of the gas was stored there. The current reserve is approximately 0.6 billion cubic meters, or roughly 4 times the current world market. But, Chan notes, in 1996 the Helium Privatization Act mandated that the Department of the Interior sell off all the stockpiled helium by 2015. "As a consequence," he says, "the United States government is selling the equivalent of 40 percent of the world market of helium at a below-market price." This action discourages the active exploration of helium," Chan explains, "since companies can buy it from the United States at a cheap price and sell it at a premium." Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-probing-helium.html#jCp http://phys.org/news/2013-04-probing-helium.html#jCp
- TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
  So? Currently helium is being sold off at a below-market price. When the reserve gets low, people will look at it and go "huh. We could make some money off of helium when the reserve runs out", and look for other sources. We already did the same sort of thing for oil. We didn't panic when the initial wells and types of wells started to go dry - we found other sources.
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    Infinite Earth.
    - TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
      I don't get the reference, if that is one. If you're trying to point out that the Earth is finite, although you are correct, the scale is... large. Everything that decays via alpha decay ultimately makes helium. Not to mention that a) worse comes to worse, we can always make our own, and b) it's literally >20% of the universe's (baryonic) mass. The question is whether it's economic to use, not if it will run out.
      - jsprogrammer 12y ago
        It's only a reference to what was implied in your post. Nothing more. a) Even though you may be able to decay the entire Earth into helium, it is only produced at a constant rate. If the rate of use is higher than the rate of production, you will still run out. b) Which we have 0 access to. c) You won't be able to always just "find other sources" of finite resources (I'm thinking more than just helium [unless you plan on becoming a pure helium lifeform]) and the Earth will become uninhabitable long before our resources are exhausted.
        TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
        a) Not true. As I said: worse comes to worse we can always make our own. Alpha decay can be induced with particle beams, etc. Now, it's horridly inefficient, etc, etc. But it's possible. b) What don't we have access to? The rest of the universe? True, for now. However, we don't "even" need to go interstellar for it. c) No, we won't be able to forever. However, the thing is: with helium at least, the sources known now are sufficient, in raw quantity at least, until so far in the future that good luck predicting what our needs will be. It makes someone before the rise of automobiles calculating what the horse manure removal would have to be in 2100 look shortsighted.

by monort 12y ago

fit2rule 12y ago

Yeah, we can all quote from Wikipedia. Here's another interesting quote about Helium: *Moses Chan, Evan Pugh Professor of Physics at Penn State, explains that the world's supply of helium is a byproduct of natural gas production, with the Texas Panhandle arguably being the helium capital of the world. However, says Chan, "Very few natural gas wells in the world have enough helium in the well to make it economical to separate helium from natural gas. The gas wells with the most helium have only about 0.3 percent, so it is in short supply." In response to the element's scarcity, the United States has been stockpiling helium since the 1960s in a National Helium Reserve called the Bush Dome, a deep underground reservoir outside of Amarillo, Texas. By the mid 1970s 1.2 billion cubic meters of the gas was stored there. The current reserve is approximately 0.6 billion cubic meters, or roughly 4 times the current world market. But, Chan notes, in 1996 the Helium Privatization Act mandated that the Department of the Interior sell off all the stockpiled helium by 2015. "As a consequence," he says, "the United States government is selling the equivalent of 40 percent of the world market of helium at a below-market price." This action discourages the active exploration of helium," Chan explains, "since companies can buy it from the United States at a cheap price and sell it at a premium." Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-probing-helium.html#jCp http://phys.org/news/2013-04-probing-helium.html#jCp

TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
So? Currently helium is being sold off at a below-market price. When the reserve gets low, people will look at it and go "huh. We could make some money off of helium when the reserve runs out", and look for other sources. We already did the same sort of thing for oil. We didn't panic when the initial wells and types of wells started to go dry - we found other sources.
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  Infinite Earth.
  - TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
    I don't get the reference, if that is one. If you're trying to point out that the Earth is finite, although you are correct, the scale is... large. Everything that decays via alpha decay ultimately makes helium. Not to mention that a) worse comes to worse, we can always make our own, and b) it's literally >20% of the universe's (baryonic) mass. The question is whether it's economic to use, not if it will run out.
    - jsprogrammer 12y ago
      It's only a reference to what was implied in your post. Nothing more. a) Even though you may be able to decay the entire Earth into helium, it is only produced at a constant rate. If the rate of use is higher than the rate of production, you will still run out. b) Which we have 0 access to. c) You won't be able to always just "find other sources" of finite resources (I'm thinking more than just helium [unless you plan on becoming a pure helium lifeform]) and the Earth will become uninhabitable long before our resources are exhausted.
      - TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
        a) Not true. As I said: worse comes to worse we can always make our own. Alpha decay can be induced with particle beams, etc. Now, it's horridly inefficient, etc, etc. But it's possible. b) What don't we have access to? The rest of the universe? True, for now. However, we don't "even" need to go interstellar for it. c) No, we won't be able to forever. However, the thing is: with helium at least, the sources known now are sufficient, in raw quantity at least, until so far in the future that good luck predicting what our needs will be. It makes someone before the rise of automobiles calculating what the horse manure removal would have to be in 2100 look shortsighted.