Keep bringing this up because it shows how big money wins out every time over conservation and recycling.
World helium reserves are running out, Nobel laureate claims
The world's reserves of helium are running out the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Robert Richardson, has claimed.
World reserves of helium are running out, Nobel laureate prof Robert Richardson has claimed Photo: Jonathan Trappe / Barcroft USA
9:40AM BST 23 Aug 2010
24 Comments Experts have warned that the inert gas is being sold off far too cheaply and that resources could run out within 25 to 30 years.
Prof Richardson has called for America to reconsider its policy to sell off its helium reserves by 2015 as a result.
A US law, passed in 1996, has ruled that the US National Helium Reserve, located in Amarillo, Texas, should be sold off within 20 years.
Helium, a non-renewable resource, is used in MRI scanners (which are cooled by the gas), airships and also by anti-terrorist authorities who used it for their radiation monitors.
It is created by the radioactive decay of terrestrial rock and most of the world's reserves have been derived as a by-product from the extraction of natural gas.
Around 80 per cent of the world's reserves are in the American South-west.
However, because the gas is sold so cheaply there is no incentive to recycle it. Nasa uses enormous quantities to clean its rockets to get rid of explosive fuel but none of the gas is reused.
Prof Richardson, professor of Physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, co-chaired an inquiry into the impending shortage convened by the US National Research Council, an arm of the US National Academy of Sciences.
He claims that helium should rise by between 20- and 50-fold to make recycling more worthwhile.
Professor Richardson also believes that party balloons filled with helium are too cheap, and they should really cost about £64 to reflect the precious nature of the gas they contain.
He told The Independent: "Once helium is released into the atmosphere in the form of party balloons or boiling helium, it is lost to the Earth for ever, lost to the Earth for ever."
However, because the gas is sold so cheaply there is no incentive to recycle it. Nasa uses enormous quantities to clean its rockets to get rid of explosive fuel but none of the gas is reused.
Prof Richardson, professor of Physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, co-chaired an inquiry into the impending shortage convened by the US National Research Council, an arm of the US National Academy of Sciences.
He claims that helium should rise by between 20- and 50-fold to make recycling more worthwhile.
Professor Richardson also believes that party balloons filled with helium are too cheap, and they should really cost about £64 to reflect the precious nature of the gas they contain.
He told The Independent: "Once helium is released into the atmosphere in the form of party balloons or boiling helium, it is lost to the Earth for ever, lost to the Earth for ever."
