For near 100 years, the U.S. authorities has been the biggest helium supplier worldwide.1 This is about to vary, now that the Federal Helium Reserve has been offered to the best bidder — Messer, an industrial gasoline firm. But with helium already briefly provide, the sale has spooked the well being care business amidst fears the helium scarcity could worsen.
This isn’t only a matter of occasion balloons going flat. Helium, the coldest aspect on Earth, is important to maintain most magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines cool. Without helium — in lots of circumstances as much as 1,800 liters that have to be consistently replenished2 — many MRI machines will stop to perform, as will the possibly lifesaving photos they supply.
The Cliffside Gas Plant sits on simply over 8 acres of land close to Amarillo, Texas.3 The facility, which is at present overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, accounts for as much as 30% of the U.S. helium provide, or 9% of the worldwide provide.4 The helium exists about 3,000 toes underground, in a pure geologic formation referred to as the Helium Storage Reservoir.
Why Did the US Sell Its Federal Helium Reserve?
Also often called the Bush Dome, the reservoir has held as much as 44 billion cubic toes (Bcf) of helium however, on the time of sale, the U.S. General Services Administration says it’s estimated to comprise “roughly 4 plus Bcf of confirmed and potential federally owned helium (native and reserve), roughly 2 Bcf of privately owned helium, together with roughly 60 Bcf of federally owned pure gasoline.”5
The sale of the Federal Helium Reserve was mandated in 1996 to assist scale back nationwide debt. According to The National Academies Press:6
“Helium has lengthy been the topic of public coverage deliberation and administration, largely due to its many strategic makes use of and its uncommon supply — it’s a derived product of pure gasoline and its market has a number of anomalous traits.
Shortly after sources of helium had been found in the beginning of the final century, the U.S. authorities acknowledged helium’s potential significance to the nation’s pursuits and positioned its manufacturing and availability below strict governmental management.
In the Nineteen Sixties, helium’s strategic worth in Cold War efforts was mirrored in insurance policies that resulted within the accumulation of a big reserve of helium owned by the federal authorities … the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (1996 12 Act) … directs that considerably the entire helium collected on account of these earlier insurance policies be offered off by 2015 at costs enough to repay the federal authorities for its outlays related to the helium program.”
A pricing element within the regulation dictated that the Bush Dome helium be offered at a value that elevated together with the inflation price — somewhat than at market costs. But demand for helium quickly skyrocketed not just for use in well being care but additionally for the manufacture of semiconductors used for smartphones, vehicles and extra. This, Texas Monthly reported, triggered the beginning of helium shortages:7
“With this and different helium-hogging technological advances, the demand for the gasoline skyrocketed, as did its value in every single place aside from Cliffside. So a handful of firms made huge earnings shopping for grossly undervalued helium from the federal government and reselling it. The quantity of helium within the Bush Dome dwindled from about 30 billion cubic toes to 7.6 billion by April 2017.
This cheaply out there provide additionally discouraged firms from searching for new sources of the gasoline, based on Bo Sears, creator of ‘Helium: The Disappearing Element’ and president of Helix Exploration, a minerals exploration firm. ‘It is that this formulation of pricing that has precipitated the entire shortages that we see as we speak,’ he [said].”
The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 addressed the pricing downside so the helium could be offered to the best bidder.8 While a share of helium within the Bush Dome has been auctioned off yearly since, the final of the helium reserve was offered January 25, 2024.9
Are Helium Supplies Dwindling?
Now that the U.S. stockpile of helium has been offered, fears of additional provide shortages have surfaced. In an e mail to NBC News, a spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department acknowledged, “Sale of the reserve to a non-public occasion, as Congressionally mandated by regulation, is just not anticipated to meaningfully change the supply of helium.”10
But Soumi Saha, the senior vp of presidency affairs at Premier Inc., which connects helium suppliers with U.S. hospitals, instructed NBC News, “… [W]e are stressing about this scarcity. From a well being care perspective, MRI machines are the No. 1 concern.”11 For a component that’s the second most ample within the universe, helium is surprisingly uncommon on Earth. According to the American Chemical Society (ACS):12
“On the Earth, most helium is a radioactive decay product of uranium and thorium. It is discovered below the Earth’s crust with different pure gases. Commercial helium is extracted from pure gasoline when the helium concentra on is above 0.3%.
The U.S., Qatar and Algeria have the world’s main helium reserves, whereas the U.S., Russia and Algeria are the highest suppliers. In the U.S., helium is discovered primarily within the Texas panhandle and Kansas. Uncertainty about how non-public markets will distribute and value helium is a priority, particularly to scientific researchers utilizing small quantities of helium.”
ACS describes helium as an “endangered aspect,” because it’s the one unrecoverable aspect. When helium is launched, it rises till it will get to area, so “atmospheric restoration of helium is almost inconceivable.”13 Liquid helium that boils off may be captured and recycled, however recycling infrastructure within the U.S. is restricted.14 Texas Monthly explains:15
“Helium is so mild that it’s not held by the earth’s gravitational pull; it escapes our environment and into area if it’s not contained by rocks or human ingenuity. We haven’t any technique of artificially making it, and its pure manufacturing — a byproduct of the radioactive decay of components resembling uranium and thorium deep within the earth’s crust — requires lots of of thousands and thousands of years.”
3 of 5 Helium Suppliers Are Rationing It
Already, NBC News reviews that 3 of 5 U.S. helium suppliers have taken to rationing helium so “life-or-death makes use of like MRI machines” take precedence over parade and occasion balloons. Scientists utilizing magnetic imaging for analysis are already feeling the pinch, with some helium suppliers slicing off their allocations. Other specialty scanners may be affected. According to NBC:16
“For occasion, the University of California has a strong helium-reliant magnetoencephalography, or MEG, scanner, that docs use to plan pediatric mind operations. Statewide, [University of California’s chief procurement officer Paul] Williams mentioned, there have been solely two of those scanners.
‘If it runs out of helium, it is going to require a number of weeks to recool, delaying surgical procedures, or, in some circumstances, compelling surgeons to function with out detailed mind maps,’ he mentioned, including that the MEG scanner has barely averted shutdown dozens of occasions over the previous 10 years.”
Additional hurdles, together with geopolitical elements, transport and provide chain points,17 additionally abound. Then there’s the truth that liquid helium evaporates after 35 to 48 days — a severe concern when helium have to be sourced from outdoors the U.S. or Canada.18
“Shutting down the U.S. helium reserve would power a scenario the place we must enhance our reliance on international sources, like Qatar and Russia,” Saha instructed NBC News. “Given the continuing geopolitical considerations and tensions in these areas and transport delays, it will enhance considerations round potential shortages on U.S. soil.”19
MRI Machines Depend on Helium for Cooling
Conventional MRI machines depend upon excessive chilly to maintain their magnetic present superconductive.20 Superconductivity, LBN Medical, a reseller of medical imaging tools, explains, “is the bodily impact that happens in numerous supplies when uncovered to extraordinarily low temperatures. It permits {the electrical} present to stream by means of {the electrical} conductor with out producing electrical resistance, which leads to zero energy losses.”21
Helium will get the job finished, cooling MRI machines’ superconducting magnets to -269 levels C. As LBN Medical notes:22
“In order to perform, MRI scanners require a coolant that can give the magnetic coils within the scanner superconductive properties. That permits {the electrical} present to stream by means of the low resistance coils, enabling the technology of high-intensity magnetic fields … Liquid helium is the right aspect — chilly sufficient to supply the degrees of superconductivity required in MRI scanners.”
Unfortunately, helium is just not solely affected by provide points but additionally pricing fluctuations. “The price of helium has elevated 250% during the last 5 years, making scientific analysis dearer. The helium market is topic to frequent value shocks. In 2017, the blockade of Qatar instantly eliminated 30% of the world’s helium provide from the market, inflicting costs to briefly skyrocket,” ACS reported.23
Previously, reserves from the federal helium reserve could possibly be launched to assist buffer most of these market upsets, so its sale could add much more “uncertainty and volatility to the market,” University of New Mexico economist Janie Chermak instructed Science.24 When the reserve modifications arms it might additionally result in a provide disruption or full shutdown. Science reported:25
“Looming issues there embody a upkeep backlog and the necessity for the brand new proprietor to safe rights of manner for 680 kilometers of pipeline, which is not going to mechanically switch.
There can be the matter of negotiating a brand new contract with the Cliffside Helium Enrichment Unit — a privately owned facility that’s mandatory for processing helium on the reserve. For these causes, the commercial gasoline firm Air Products filed a lawsuit towards the federal government in September arguing that the sale was illegal.”
Anticipating a possible future with out the free use of helium, MRI producers have come out with machines that use far much less helium — simply 1 to 7 liters — in addition to people who use none in any respect. Still, many hospitals are reluctant to improve their tools, together with pricey MRI machines that would final for many years.26
Further, it’s not solely MRI machines that depend upon helium. Nuclear reactors and rockets, in addition to the manufacture of fiber optics and semiconductors, additionally use helium, which is why working out of helium would have world repercussions.
While scientists discover options to hydrogen for numerous functions, ACS advisable that, to be able to save helium, chemists can work to extend recycling infrastructure whereas people can cease shopping for helium balloons.27