Challenges remain to accessing US federal helium reserves
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Challenges remain to accessing US federal helium reserves www.blm.gov
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n international helium shortage was narrowly avoided last fall with the passage of the Helium Stewardship Act (HSA) of 2013 (reported in the December 2013 issue of the MRS Bulletin). Helium is an important non-renewable resource that is used in a variety of industries, and is especially important to materials researchers because of its use in cryogenic and other scientific applications. The community of scientific and industrial helium users supported the passage of the bill in the hopes that it would minimize price fluctuations and shortages to effectively stabilize the helium market. While there is no question that the HSA averted a helium crisis, nearly a year after its passage it is clear that some hurdles still need to be overcome. In the scientific community many researchers are experiencing price fluctuations as well as difficulty maintaining reliable delivery. Bill Halperin, a professor of physics at Northwestern University, said that buying helium is somewhat analogous to booking a seat on an airplane because “there is no inventory, so it is in the interest of the providers to overbook.” Halperin added that because there are only about six major helium providers in the United States, “customer service for small users is not a high priority.” Unfortunately, according to Moses Chan, a professor of physics at The Pennsylvania State University, “only approximately three percent of helium usage is for scientific research.” This means that “scientific users have very little leverage in this sector compared to others like medical [MRI], manufacturing, etc.,” said Chan. Both Halperin and Chan admit they have fared better than most academic helium users because places like Northwestern and Penn State use sufficient amounts of helium on a
regular schedule, making vendors more willing to provide a reliable and costcompetitive supply. Halperin also noted that since research at Northwestern is largely supported by US federal grants, he has registered the university as an “in-kind” helium user with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The in-kind program allows helium providers to obtain helium from the federal helium reserve without restraint for certified users, which should guarantee availability of helium for federally funded research. But “some providers do not recognize or participate in the in-kind program, which might leave a certified user with very little recourse,” said Halperin. Recognizing the difficulties faced by many federally funded helium users, the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Chemical Society have joined together with the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to establish a helium group-purchasing pilot program. According to Mark Elsesser, a policy analyst for APS, “the pilot program will pool academic users and the DLA will act as a broker to hopefully negotiate a better price and more reliable delivery.” Elsesser characterized the initial response to the pilot program as “terrific” and said, “We’ve heard from
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