From the journal Science, November 6:
Impending sale of scientifically critical helium sparks worries
Fearing disruptions to supplies of gas used in MRIs and quantum computers, industry calls for delay to unloading of federal reserve
After serving as the world’s largest provider of helium for nearly a century, the U.S. government is close to bowing out of the market. Aiming to recoup costs, it began emptying its vast underground reservoir of the gas in the 1990s and has now put the whole federal helium system up for sale. Early next year, the government plans to unveil bids from potential buyers of the Amarillo, Texas, facility, which includes a distribution pipeline and the porous rock formation containing the remaining stores of helium—a substance used in everything from MRI machines to quantum computers to party balloons.
But few are celebrating.
Last month, the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), which represents industrial gas companies, together with groups representing the semiconductor, medical, and aerospace sectors, warned the sale could disrupt supplies of the indispensable element. Scientists worry it will send already stiff prices soaring, especially after the government ended a program that sold helium to federally funded researchers at a discount. And a bipartisan group of senators wrote to the Biden administration in late October to call for a pause to the sale. Last week, in an email to potential bidders, the government delayed the sale from mid-November to 25 January 2024, but for reasons unrelated to supply concerns. “It’s sort of like it’s on this administrative train to be sold and we don’t know how to stop it,” says CGA President Rich Gottwald.
In addition to being lighter than air, helium is staunchly unreactive, making it useful for manufacturing sensitive products such as computer chips. It can also be chilled to –269°C, making it essential for cooling quantum computers as well as the superconducting magnets inside MRI machines.
But on Earth helium is scarce. It forms through the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium deep in the crust and eventually seeps out and escapes into space. Some, however, gets trapped in the same rocks as natural gas deposits. As a result, helium extraction is typically a byproduct of fossil fuel production, which has made resource development spotty....
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