Why are we running out of helium? It is a non-renewable resource that we are rapidly using up.
Many people don’t give a second thought about helium. It is the second lightest element and the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. It is thought to make up 24% of the total elemental mass in the universe. It is produced in stars where it is the byproduct of the fusion reaction that goes on. Four hydrogen atoms combine to make one helium atom. Hydrogen is the lightest and most common element in the universe because it is the lightest and the easiest to make. Hydrogen only has one atom and one electron. When hydrogen atoms are fused together under immense heat, the atoms join together and form a helium atom, which has 2 electrons. 2 of the electrons from the hydrogen atoms in the fusing process fly away. This makes helium extremely plentiful in the universe, but not here on Earth. In 2022, it was estimated that there are about 85.7 million cubic meters of helium left on Earth.
The helium that we have on Earth was mostly produced deep underground through the natural radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and other heavy elements. When elements decay, they emit an alpha particle. That particle becomes the nucleus of a helium atom. It picks up two electrons and becomes a stable helium element. That helium floats up through the Earth but gets trapped in pockets of natural gas. When we take the natural gas out of the ground, we can separate out the helium. It takes hundreds of millions of years for this to happen. The half-life of Uranium 238 is 4.5 billion years. That means, all of the uranium 238 that has been here since the Earth was formed, has now decayed to half of its original mass.
The problem is that because helium is so light, it just floats away. Hydrogen is the lightest element, but it usually combines with other elements, which makes it heavier. Helium doesn’t react with other elements. While it is trapped under the ground, it is safe, and once it is harvested and stored, it is safe. However, when it is used, it just floats away. For example, if you put helium in a balloon and then pop the balloon the helium will float into the sky, but it won’t stop there. It is lighter than anything else in the atmosphere, so it will keep going up until it leaves the atmosphere and is swept away by solar winds. Our helium is literally blowing away.
How do we use helium? Many people can picture helium balloons, but that is only a tiny fraction of the helium that we use. Helium is an extremely useful element because it has a very low boiling point and low density. The largest use of helium is in cryogenic applications. When helium is cooled to close to absolute zero it becomes a superfluid. It is used to cool the magnets in the Large Hadron Collider, in the Tokamaks of fusion reactors, and in MRI scanners. It is used in tungsten arc welding, industrial leak detection, in telescopes, and in many other ways. It also makes our voices sound funny when we inhale it.
So, why are we running out of helium? We use it without thinking about it, but helium is a nonrenewable resource. Once it has been used, it drifts off into space. More is being produced on Earth, but it takes hundreds of millions of years. Helium is currently mined in places that also produce natural gas. These are the United States, Russia, and the Middle East. The largest reserve of helium is the National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, America, which has 78% of all helium. The reserve went heavily into debt to produce all of the helium that it has, so the US Congress passed a law in 1996 to start selling off the helium reserve to recoup its losses. This is the reason why helium is so cheap, even though it is a non-renewable resource. Prices don’t fluctuate as the helium runs out, giving us a false sense of security.
So, what is to be done? Some people think that there is more helium in the ground. We just need to look for it. This is probably true, but it seems like a short-term solution to a long-term problem. In the same way that we are investing in renewable energy to move away from fossil fuels, maybe we need to find alternative gases that we can use in place of helium. Unfortunately, a lot of the industrial uses of helium won’t work with any other element. It is also very unlikely that we will be able to come up with a cost-effective way of producing helium. There is some hope that a nuclear fusion reactor could produce helium as a byproduct of the reaction, but that won’t happen until towards the end of the 21st century and we will have run out of helium long before then. There are three solutions that will work in the meantime. The first is to get all mining companies to extract and store helium. Most companies are not looking for helium and just release the gases. The second solution is to recycle all helium that is used. And the third solution is to stop wasting helium, as in balloons at Disneyland.
So, why are we running out of helium? Because it is a non-renewable resource and we are using it too quickly. It is the second lightest element on Earth and it floats off into space unless it is contained. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.wwu.edu/astro101/a101_sun.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium
https://www.thoughtco.com/will-we-run-out-of-helium-3975959
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html