Policy report on helium proposes long-term solutions
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Policy report on helium proposes long-term solutions www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-reports/upload/HeliumReport.pdf https://conserve-helium.org
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elium (He) is a nonrenewable natural resource with an uncertain future. The lightest of the noble gases, helium is unique because it is a liquid at ultralow temperatures (approaching absolute zero Kelvin), which makes it essential in cryogenic applications that are used in a broad range of materials, physics, and chemistry research as well as for other ultralow temperature experiments. This important resource is the topic of a recent policy report released by the Materials Research Society (MRS) in conjunction with the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Chemical Society (ACS). The report, “Responding to the U.S. Research Community’s Liquid Helium Crisis,” summarizes the past and continued role of liquid helium in US innovation, describes the cost and availability challenges faced by researchers dependent on liquid helium, provides a methodology for scientists to evaluate the feasibility of various helium recycling options, and presents a set of five policy recommendations for the executive and legislative branches of government as well as the relevant professional societies. “The irreplaceable nature of liquid helium within the research community has galvanized the MRS and partner societies to focus on some long-term solutions,” says Damon Dozier, MRS Director of Government Affairs. Citing the looming closure of the Federal Helium Reserve and transition to a private market in 2021 (set in motion by the Helium Stewardship Act—Pub. L. 113-40—and reported in the December 2013 issue of MRS Bulletin), Mark Elsesser, a senior policy analyst at APS, says, “we need to act now so that when 2021 comes we are prepared, and as a community are less dependent on the helium market.” These sentiments are echoed across the range of helium users, many of whom
have already seen steep price hikes and shortages of liquid helium over the last five years. Sophia Hayes, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University, says, “The price I paid for liquid helium was fairly stable up to 2012, then prices started to rise. By the fall of 2013 the price had more than doubled and by the fall of 2015 it had almost reached three times the amount I was paying in 2012.” Hayes considers herself “one of the lucky ones” because Washington University is a large university with a degree of purchasing power and has also started to help subsidize liquid-helium costs for its researchers—a luxury most helium users do not have. The report points out that the drastic helium price increase experienced by Hayes is not uncommon among liquid-helium users, and the price paid for liquid helium can vary significantly between users, even in the same region and with similar consumption. Indeed, no correlation could be found between liquid-helium price and location or consumption levels (see figure). “I have very strong concerns about how I’m going to keep my research going under these cond
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