Helium, one of the most abundant resources found in nature, may no longer be available. Helium was discovered in 1895 and is important for a variety of actions to be carried out; it is used for fueling NASA rockets, in lasers for eye surgery, balloons, the construction of technology, and much more. Without this natural resource many common objects and activities would become rare, and currently the world’s helium supply is dwindling down.
Though one of the most common elements found in nature, helium is one of the most difficult to capture. The first step to attain helium is to capture natural gas and then separate the helium from that. Helium is so valuable because of its extremely low melting and boiling points. The fact that it reacts with no other elements is also crucial.
The United States holds about 35% of the world’s helium in a reserve near Amarillo, Texas. The country is currently the number one helium supplier, supplying about 75% of the helium used on Earth. When the reserve was created, the United States decided to sell helium until the building costs were paid off; the price of construction is expected to be paid off by 2015.
Solutions to this sudden cutoff include the proposal of the Helium Stewardship Act of 2012, which would extend the deadline at which the United States would stop helium sales. There has been no definite decision on the act, though it has made it through the Senate and is currently in the House of Representatives.
“I think we should conserve helium in a more professional manner so we can apply it to better causes,” said senior Garrett Jones.
Results of the United States stopping their helium sales could be drastic and effect many fields of work including the military, technological, and medical fields. Helium is used to cool and clean many electronic parts which are crucial for the electronic to work. Without helium, these electronics could not be made as easily and therefore would make newly made and previously made electronics much more valuable.
Sophomore Andrew Gray thought that, because of the shortage, “we will begin to stop using as much technology as right now.”
Small-scale research also requires certain amounts of helium necessary for conducting research, but due to the shortage, prices of helium will rise and make it much less accessible.
Freshman Amiyah Lytle thought this shortage will “affect people more advanced into technology but most people wouldn’t know because they don’t know about it anyway because if you didn’t mention it I probably wouldn’t know but I don’t think it’ll be a problem for everyone.”
Helium sales bring in $430,000 to the Treasury Department per day, which averages to about $157 billion per year. The decision on whether or not to sell the US helium supply would result in loss of the contained natural resource or loss of many commonly used items and large sums of money.