Washington averts helium shortage
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ington averts helium shortage www.blm.gov
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elium has recently entered the national spotlight in the United States with passage of the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013. This law provides for continued access to the federal helium supply in the short term and sets up a gradual transition to the private market by 2021. This law effectively prevents immediate helium shortages and allows a diverse range of helium-based industries to continue to operate. According to Stuart Henderson, Associate Laboratory Director for Accelerators at Fermilab, “Most of the large scientific user facilities require helium for cryogenics…. Together these facilities support many thousands of US and international scientists.” Henderson said that had the bill not passed, he expected their annual expense for helium to double, leaving less room in the budget for employment and experiments. In addition, Henderson predicted that loss of the federal helium supply would likely have resulted in helium rationing, which he described as “a complete disaster” that would leave major scientific facilities without a steady supply of helium. Indeed, the largest use of helium in the country is for cryogenics—an application where there is no viable substitute. And while cryogenics are extremely important for science, they are equally important in the health care industry where helium is used to cool the large magnets in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. Restricted access to helium could cause delays and increase in cost for these important diagnostic tests, affecting millions of people every year. In addition to cryogenic use, helium is critical for a variety of industries and applications. From pressurizing and purging gas in rockets, to an inert and controlled atmosphere under which crystals used to make microchips can be grown, to a protective cover gas
for industrial welding, to the well-known lifting gas used in balloons—helium is a versatile and important resource. The creation of the US Federal Helium Reserve was spawned by the short-lived use of airships (blimps) for national defense in the 1920s. Through the 1950s, helium was considered a critical resource for national security in the United States because it was used to purge liquid-fueled rockets during the Cold War and the Space Race. With the growing need for helium, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) stockpiled helium and stored it in a geological formation called the Bush Dome Reservoir located outside of Amarillo, Texas. The Helium Act of 1960 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to sell crude helium for federal, medical, scientific, and commercial uses, and established a national helium production program that expanded the reserve to include storage, withdrawal, and transportation facilities. By 1996, helium was no longer considered critical to US national security, and with the trend toward privatization, the Helium Privatization Act (HPA) was passed. The HPA set a January 1, 2015 deadline for two requirements: first, the BLM was required to gradually sell helium to pay off the
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