I visited the US National Helium Reserve
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited to show that helium is not actually running out, and for background on the federal reserve.
What it is
Tom Scott visits the US National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, and explains why headlines that the world is running out of helium are misleading. He covers the Federal Helium Program and its planned privatization.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2019 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Cites wnevets · 2019-11 · on “Some scientists are serious about resurrecting zeppelins for cargo”
According to Sam Burton of The Federal Helium Program [1], we have at-least 100 years worth of Helium in Wyoming with the current supply and demand. This is before taking into account new sources. [this video] [1]
Cites not-my-account · 2021-08 · on “Buoyant wants to solve middle-mile delivery with cargo airships”
How would the moving price of Helium affect operations? Or rather, what would the range of Helium prices have to be in order to be profitable? The common trope is that "The world is running out of Helium", yet it seems like that is not actually true [1][2]. I'd be interested to hear how this is all being taken into account. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Cites aylmao · 2023-09 · on “The Federal Helium reserve is for sale”
Huh, the video does mention they were in the process of privatizing it (at around 4:10 [1]) planning to be "stepping out of the helium activity and transferring it to private entities" by 2021 (guess it got delayed due to COVID?). The Wikipedia page for the Helium Act of 1925 [3], which created the National Helium Reserve, does mention USA was the only important source of helium at the time, and amongst other things the act banned Helium exports. Given the rarity of Helium, this sounds like a good idea. This privatization effort seems to be part of the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 [2], passed under Bill Clinton, and I couldn't quickly find any reasoning for its implementation (perhaps I'