0

The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried.(www.nbcnews.com)

posted
by
Avatar
Five@slrpnk.net
in
Avatar
news@beehaw.org
17 comments
hidereport
Sort:
HotTopControversialNewOld
You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
Avatar
Square Singer@feddit.de
0 points

But we are consuming about 6 million tons per year (https://www.chemanalyst.com/industry-report/helium-gas-market-578).

The 3000 tons are just a drop in the water and it’s pretty much impossible to get to all that.

permalink
report
parent
reply
Avatar
user134450@feddit.de
0 points
*

oh i must have missed a few orders of magnitude there. 6Mt of helium is a ridiculous amount though … what is all that used for? according to WA that is about the water volume of the three gorges dam at STP

Edit: just read the report, wow, more than a quarter of all the helium is used just for “breathing mixes” which i assume means its for scuba diving.

permalink
report
parent
reply
Avatar
Square Singer@feddit.de
0 points

There’s quite a large amount of the usage which could be labelled “for fun”.

permalink
report
parent
reply

World News

!news@beehaw.org

Create post

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:
  • Where possible, post the original source of information.
    • If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
  • Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
  • Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
  • Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
  • Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Community stats

  • 1.1K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.1K

    Posts

  • 1.5K

    Comments

Community moderators