Topic: rethinking party balloons- we're running out of helium?

[hunter]

http://www.physorg.com/news201853523.html

(PhysOrg.com) -- A renowned expert on helium says we are wasting our supplies of the inert gas helium and will run out within 25 to 30 years, which will have disastrous consequences for hospitals and industry.

Man, and we thought we were going through fossil fuels like it was candy on Halloween night.

[Halleyscomet/Wakefield]

http://www.physorg.com/news201853523.html

(PhysOrg.com) -- A renowned expert on helium says we are wasting our supplies of the inert gas helium and will run out within 25 to 30 years, which will have disastrous consequences for hospitals and industry.

Man, and we thought we were going through fossil fuels like it was candy on Halloween night.

That's one of the amusing things about trying to develop fusion. By the time we get it right, we won't have enough helium left to make it workable.

[whitedevilbrewing]

Fusion reactors fuse hydrogen into helium, no?

[Skulker]

If we use hydrogen for the fusion reaction, we'll be up to our ass in helium. 

[jaypee]

I guess this has something to do with the reason we've been hearing about people talking up how safe Hydrogen rigid-airships are compared to the Hindenburg

[hunter]

Even if fusion gets up and running, I can't imagine there being giant sums of helium produced as a result... at least on a large scale of what we're going through today.

[stonesean]

So then....like....why don't helium balloons cost like, 75 bucks each?

[jaypee]

So then....like....why don't helium balloons cost like, 75 bucks each?

Just you wait.

By the way, I should feel ashamed for being so shameless, but it's sort of relevant: my wife sews fabric banners for kid's birthdays. PM me if you want contact info.

They're more environmentally friendly that wasting our scarce helium resources on mylar Disney balloons.

[IloveLamp]

good to know. i'll start filling my underground cavern with used birthday balloons. i'm going to be rich, biatch.

[hunter]

So then....like....why don't helium balloons cost like, 75 bucks each?

Professor Richardson warned the gas is not cheap because the supply is inexhaustible, but because of the Helium Privatisation Act passed in 1996 by the US Congress. The Act required the helium stores held underground near Amarillo in Texas to be sold off at a fixed rate by 2015 regardless of the market value, to pay off the original cost of the reserve. The Amarillo storage facility holds around half the Earth's stocks of helium: around a billion cubic meters of the gas. The US currently supplies around 80 percent of the world's helium supplies.

[Shibboleth]

Dammit. There goes my helium powered car plans.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

good to know. i'll start filling my underground cavern with used birthday balloons. i'm going to be rich, biatch.

Helium gradually leaks through the balloon.
Just factor that in for your cavern planning.

[Nacreous]

Helium gradually leaks through the balloon.

That's why we need to stop using it immediately!  It will make the atmosphere lighter, and all our air will float away into outer space.

[jaypee]

Seriously though, maybe we should all put hermetically sealed chambers in our basements and start buying helium balloons and helium tanks in bulk. Corner the market and all that.

[IloveLamp]

good to know. i'll start filling my underground cavern with used birthday balloons. i'm going to be rich, biatch.

Helium gradually leaks through the balloon.

Thus the need for a cavern. I intend to fill it completely.