The End of the Federal Helium Service
The element Helium is in short supply on Earth. As anyone who’s held a party balloon knows, helium gas floats. Being less dense than the ambient air, it floats right up into space. This would be a mere curiosity if not for the myriad industrial applications of Helium.
That gas is used in welding, deep sea diving, weather balloons, rocket fuel tanks and MRI machines. Helium comes as a byproduct of natural gas mining, and the US has been historically dominant as a producer of that noble gas.
Indeed, the US has looked to strategically stockpile helium since the civil war, and did so at the Federal Helium Reserve from 1925 until - inexplicably - Congress passed the “Helium Privatization Act of 1996” effectively requiring the Federal Helium service to liquidate itself.
Despite a late attempt to impose some structure on that sale, the economical impact was a massive supply shock of low priced surplus Helium, complimented by an unrelated, massive decline in US helium production. As such, the helium market for the past twenty plus years has been rife with volatility. As COVID slashed demand, we finally managed to crawl out of the third major supply shortage of Helium in recent times.
The Privatization Act required the “disposal” of the Federal Helium Service to be completed by September 30th of this year. After dismantling and selling two major Helium plants, the BLM has completely removed itself from the process by giving the remaining inventory and facilities to the General Services Administration, which hopes to finish the sale by the end of 2022.
For more details on the industrial uses of Helium and the potential threats of a shortage, check out our latest “bonus” episode of the Field Guide to Particle Physics podcast.
