A fragile stability

The helium we use as we speak shaped from the breakdown of radioactive supplies hundreds of thousands of years in the past and has been trapped in rocks beneath Earth’s floor ever since. 

Helium is normally extracted from these underground reservoirs together with pure fuel, as John Mattill defined in an article from our January 1986 challenge: “Helium might be readily separated from the fuel earlier than combustion, however the decrease the helium focus, the upper the fee of doing so.” 

Usually talking, helium concentrations have to be at the least 0.3% for fuel firms to hassle with it. Such ranges might be present in solely a handful of international locations together with the US, Qatar, Algeria, Canada, and South Africa. 

Helium shortages will not be brought on by an absence of helium, then, however the lack of ability of producers in these few international locations to ship it to prospects all over the place in a well timed method. That may occur for any quantity of causes. 

“It is a really international enterprise, and any time a battle breaks out someplace, or something like that, it tends to affect the helium enterprise,” says Kornbluth. 

One other problem is that helium atoms are so mild Earth’s gravity can’t maintain onto them. They have a tendency to simply, nicely, float away, even escaping specifically designed tanks. As much as 50% of helium we extract is misplaced earlier than it may be used, in keeping with a brand new evaluation introduced by Siddhantakar final week on the Worldwide Spherical Desk on Supplies Criticality. 

Given all this, international locations that want so much of helium—Canada, China, Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the UK are among the many high importers—should consistently work to make sure a dependable provide. The US is one of the biggest shoppers of helium, however it’s additionally a number one producer.

For many years, the worldwide helium market was carefully tied to the US authorities, which started stockpiling helium in Texas in 1961 for navy functions. As Howland wrote in 1975, “The unique justification of the federal helium conservation program was to retailer helium till a later time when it will be extra important and fewer out there.”