Cited on HN 3 times, 2019–2023, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Cited to show that helium is not actually running out, and for background on the federal reserve.
Tom Scott visits the US National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, and explains why headlines that the world is running out of helium are misleading. He covers the Federal Helium Program and its planned privatization.
“yet it seems like that is not actually true [1][2].” (HN, 2021)
According to Sam Burton of The Federal Helium Program [1], we have at-least 100 years worth of Helium in Wyoming with the current supply and demand. This is before taking into account new sources. [this video] [1]
Federal Helium Program says 100 years of helium supply.
How would the moving price of Helium affect operations? Or rather, what would the range of Helium prices have to be in order to be profitable? The common trope is that "The world is running out of Helium", yet it seems like that is not actually true [1][2]. I'd be interested to hear how this is all being taken into account. [1] [link] [2] [this video]
Huh, the video does mention they were in the process of privatizing it (at around 4:10 [1]) planning to be "stepping out of the helium activity and transferring it to private entities" by 2021 (guess it got delayed due to COVID?). The Wikipedia page for the Helium Act of 1925 [3], which created the National Helium Reserve, does mention USA was the only important source of helium at the time, and amongst other things the act banned Helium exports. Given the rarity of Helium, this sounds like a good idea. This privatization effort seems to be part of the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 [2], passed under Bill Clinton, and I couldn't quickly find any reasoning for its implementation (perhaps I'm not Googling the right question?). I wonder why they decided it'd be better to privatize it, considering the USA (at least as of 2018) still accounted for over half of worldwide helium exports [4]. It does still sound like a strategic and rare resource worth keeping under tight control, IMO. [1] [this video] [2] [link] [3] [link] [4] [link]
Video mentions the planned privatization of the reserve.
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