A long as those who fill ballons with our limited supply of helium and fritter way our future, do so , we must do all we can to stop them.

When helium is released into the atmosphere it goes up and up into space and is lost forever. There is ot much left!

Google campaign to preserve helium and similar searches before it is too late!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Can't we just get more from nuclear reactions? or is that too slow...

 

Too slow. A new well in Wyoming is under development by Air Products and a partner company. It will still be in short global supply but, I agree that if it is only used for scientific applications we will likely be ok. If we use it for transportation (blimps) and novelty balloons, then we will be using much faster than natural thorium and other radioactive deposits in the earth will generate more.

 

I prefer to inhale it first!

 

We use tons of the stuff (semi grade) at work for cryogenic cooling systems , materials processing and for leak checking. There is not a shortage of the element, only a temporary supply shortage. Higher prices will make extracting more of the element for natural gas profitable.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2012-heliu.pdf

 

I saw a guy with a hand full of cash ,sitting on his tail gate selling huff's of

helium. He looked like a drug dealer ,loud music and funny people. He sold it by the

balloon full. They had a name for the parties ,maybe someone knows about these

parties, and educate me.

 

It is an element making more is like turning lead into gold.

Stop inhaling ***** ( I have read the rules)

 

It is an element making more is like turning lead into gold.

New helium is created every day. It comes from radioactive elements decaying process. Certain isotopes of Thorium and uranium emit an alpha particles as part of their decay pathway. The alpha particle is a helium nucleus.

I saw a guy with a hand full of cash ,sitting on his tail gate selling huff's of

helium. He looked like a drug dealer ,loud music and funny people. He sold it by the

balloon full. They had a name for the parties ,maybe someone knows about these

parties, and educate me.

Inhaling is a form of asphyxiation. The fact that the lungs are filling/emptying regularly prevent the body from coughing and gasping. Inhaling repeatedly can cause brain damage or kill you.

 

New atoms of helium are created in grams per year... we are using tons per hour.
Its true that it can be created in the lab, it is poss to turn lead into gold ... but...
Th gold is made is made in micro grams and is radio active for a few million years.

 

Yes and No. There are millions of tons of thorium and uranium and other radioactive isotopes in the earth. You are right, it is getting formed fairly slowly as the half-life of these isotopes is long. Unfortunately, all helium on earth has come from the radioactive decomposition of heavy elements over the past 15 billion years. As an element, we cannot make it any faster than the radioactive decay of heavy elements that occurs every day. That is why the US used to have a strategic helium reserve of great size, the helium we have is all the helium that is left, plus slow production by decay every day.

The future of the reserve is uncertain. Just this month, the US voted to extend the federal ownership of the reserve - even though it was mandated to close back in 1996.

No newly tapped gas wells have the concentration of the old Kansas wells where most of the helium was originally captured. Less concentrated sources makes recovery and purification more and more energy intensive and, therefore, more and more expensive.

I agree with PiratePaul it is a concern. We should examine how we are using Helium. Especially because international trade in helium is very unlikely since compression, condensation, packaging and return of empty packages would be enormously expensive per cubic meter of gas.

 

It's a concern but it's been completely 'over blown' in the media.

 

Hello,

In my job as a service engeneer for NMR equipment, I often hear the it sometimes is difficult to get the wanted amount of liquid helium to fill the NMR magnet.

Here is the wiki page on liquid heluim:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_helium

For 1 liter of liquid helium 757 liter heliumgas is needed as stated in this expantion ratio list on this wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_ratio

Bertus

 

It's a concern but it's been completely 'over blown' in the media.

how has it been over-blown and what media outlets are reporting on it at all? (Besides science-related news)?

 

how has it been over-blown and what media outlets are reporting on it at all? (Besides science-related news)?

It's pretty much past the news cycle now.
https://www.google.com/search?q=hel...g.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=iceweasel-a

Industrial users aren't having supply issues if you plan ahead and order directly from a major gas supplier. What is in short supply are rare gases like ultra-pure Xenon.

 

Wait a minute:

If I trap helium bottle it and then use it for welding or balloons you are saying that it escapes into outerspace?

How is it then that helium is found regularly in the atmosphere?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/RG001i003p00305/abstract

Besides Helium is commercially extracted from natural gas and there is a huge amount of that being brought into production.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2012-heliu.pdf
Expect the prices of helium to fall.