The Helium Reserve We Are Burning Into Balloons
Helium is the only element that escapes Earth's gravity entirely once released, and the world's largest strategic reserve was recently sold to a private corporation. This episode follows the strange economics of a finite gas that cools MRI machines and quantum computers, yet is priced as if it lasts forever, and asks what breaks when it finally runs low.
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Helium is a non-renewable resource that escapes into space forever once it is released.
The Federal Helium Reserve once supplied forty-two percent of the total United States demand.
The Helium Privatization Act mandated the liquidation of the national stockpile to pay down debt.
MRI machines require helium to maintain superconductivity at four hundred and fifty degrees below zero.
Closed-loop recovery systems can reduce helium consumption in medical imaging by fifty percent.
Suppliers now ration helium by prioritizing hospital MRI machines over recreational party balloons.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Texas Safety Net2 min
- 03The Price of Privatization2 min
- 04The Cold Hard Reality3 min
- 05Rationing and Recovery2 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Bring back the helium reserve—before the next shock hits
- The world keeps running out of helium. There's now a race ...
- The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here's why ...
- The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve (2000)
- Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve (Free Summary)
- Americas Helium Supply - 7.11.13 | U.S. Department of the ...
- NRC Urges U.S. to Rethink Sale of Helium Reserve
- Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve (2010)
- Bush Dome Reservoir and Cliffside Field Terminal - TSHA
- Helium Supply Shortage - 7-20-12
- Federal Helium Program - 2.14.13 | U.S. Department of the Interior
- Read "Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve" at NAP.edu
- Helium is more than party balloons. Why Australia needs to ...
- The era of cheap helium is over—and that’s already causing problems
- When a Commodity Becomes Rare: The Helium Crisis, the Ras ...
- The Helium Market
- A Helium Shock to India’s Quantum Technology Ambitions - MP-IDSA
- High cost and disruptions in helium supply make it difficult ...
- Alternatives to Helium for Balloons: Hydrogen & More
- The World Is Quietly Running Out of Helium
- What Will Replace Helium in Science and Industry?
- Helium - Under the Microscope
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