Researchers Find Game-Changing Helium Reserve In Tanzania (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via CNN: Helium is an incredibly important element that is used in everything from party balloons to MRI machines -- it's even used for nuclear power. For many years, there have been global shortages of the element. For example, Tokyo Disneyland once had to suspend sales of its helium balloons due to the shortages. The shortages are expected to come to an end now that researchers from Oxford and Durham universities have discovered a "world-class" helium gas field in Tanzania's East African Rift Valley. They estimate that just one part of the reserve in Tanzania could be as large as 54 billion cubic feet (BCf), which is enough to fill more than 1.2 million medical MRI scanners. "To put this discovery into perspective, global consumption of helium is about 8 billion cubic feet (BCf) per year and the United States Federal Helium Reserve, which is the world's largest supplier, has a current reserve of just 24.2 BCf," said University of Oxford's Chris Ballentine, a professor with the Department of Earth Sciences. "Total known reserves in the USA are around 153 BCf. This is a game-changer for the future security of society's helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away," Ballentine added.

Comments

Oh the horror for mouse land.

[I4ko]

Why the f*ck are we still wasting this gas on such stupid things as party balloons. Why wasn't this completely verboten years ago.

Re:Oh the horror for mouse land.

[spire3661]

Contrary to popular belief, the government doesnt get to control every fucking thing.

Re:Oh the horror for mouse land.

[shutdown -p now]

This is exactly the kind of thing that the government should control. We're talking about an element that is consumed at a rate much faster than it is produced naturally, and which escapes the atmosphere if released. Wasting it on silly things today means that important things that actually need it are going to be more expensive tomorrow.

Thank god, we are saved, for 6 years

[frnic]

Seriously, click bait much? Yes, it is a large find, but at 8 BCF/year it is about 6 or 7 years of supply, that is NOT a game changer for humanity, that is a game changer for the people that will make a fortune rationing it out until we run out of helium.

Re:Thank god, we are saved, for 6 years

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but you're way off, and the people who you modded up just don't know any better or also have no idea how far off this is.

Let's run some numbers. The power output of the surface of the Earth is about 40 TW, which is a good proxy overestimating how much radioactive decay into helium there is in the whole Earth (some small amount of that power is primordial heat, a pretty significant amount of it is potassium decay and other beta sources, but we're going to be conservative). At roughly 5 MeV per alpha for decay of things like Thorium and Uranium, you can estimate that 40 TW of alpha decays would give ~5e25 alpha particles a second, i.e. ~300 g per second or 10 million kg per year. The world wide production of helium (not counting what is being dumped from the US reserve) is about 30 million kg a year.

In other words, we're digging up helium three times faster from just near the surface as the an overestimate of the production of helium throughout the entire volume of the Earth, and we're using it up currently faster than that.

So no, helium isn't produced anywhere near the rates we use it at currently, even when you include large parts of the Earth that are inaccessible to extraction. Helium production relies on trapped helium that has had millions of years to accumulate in concentrated pockets and hence it can run out enough to cause substantial changes to current use (which is dominated by industrial use, not "luxury" goods like balloons).

Re:"Researchers from Oxford and Durham"

[magarity]

Nice rant about the US and UK pillaging the innocent locals. You seem to have missed the most obvious choice: Local Tanzanian officials will vastly enrich themselves and send their families to the US and UK while leaving nothing for the people.

I want our government slow and inefficient

[raymorris]

> Nobody ever said Government was smart and foreword thinking about what it does. In fact, most thinking people understand that it's quite the opposite, government is usually stupid, slow, costly and inefficient, a set of traist that gets worse as government gets bigger.

I HOPE my government remains slow and inefficient. Holding public hearings, referendums, etc. is slow and inefficient. Giving the minority opinion a chance to speak their mind is slow and inefficient. It's much more faster and more efficient for a dictator to just declare government policy. Publishing proposed laws before for several days before they are voted on slows things down.

It took from 1993 to 2010, seventeen years, to pass HillaryCare. I like that way much better than the alternative, which can be seen in North Korea, Cuba, and Syria. They don't bother with transparency laws, public bidding on government contracts, etc. That stuff is inefficient.

Re:Just two words

[Joce640k]

How is an extra 7 years supply a 'game changer'?

To me a 'game changer' would mean we can stop worrying about helium supply, not "it'll still run out in my lifetime".