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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.
Up to now helium was found by chance when drilling for something else. This time they worked out a geological model of where to look, and sure enough they found a huge amount the first place they looked based on that model.
That's the "game changer", knowing where to look for helium.
We can't "run out" of helium. Anything which emits alpha particles creates helium. Alpha particles are just helium nuclei, and when they bump into other atoms and steal the electrons they become proper helium atoms. These reservoirs are just places were radioactive decay underground generated lots of helium, and the rate at which the rocks let helium pass through is slower than the rate at which new helium is being created.
So unlike oil, this helium isn't just sitting there waiting to be tapped. It's slowly leaking out - it is one of if not the smallest molecule (smaller than H2) and can squeeze through just about anything. Even metal storage tanks will leak it. And once it reaches the air it's inevitably lost into space. The rate it's leaking out should be proportional to the amount of helium, so the most efficient use would actually be to deplete any known reservoirs, then scale back your use to match the rate at which the reservoir is being replenished. Think of the problem as how to maximize the amount of water you can put to use when your only storage tank has an unfixable leak at the bottom. The more water you try to store in the tank, the faster it leaks, and so the percentage of water you can actually use decreases.