question: Why is there a helium shortage?
comment: Its not that we're "running out" of helium - proven helium reserves are sufficient to last for hundreds of years and there's no reason to believe that there isn't substantially more helium in unproven reserves. And even once those reserves run out, helium is about as plentiful in the air as neon, and can be produced in the same way that we currently produce that - fractional distillation of the air. What's going on with helium right now is that Qatar produces 30% of the world's helium supply. Late last year the gulf states began blocking Qatari helium shipments as part of their broader blockade on the country. The thing is, no one wants to build new helium harvesting infrastructure because the shortage is almost certainly going to be very temporary, the equipment needed to do that is extremely expensive, and helium is usually a very low profit commodity so once the blockade is over anyone who invested in helium now will go bankrupt.
passages: , the United States National Helium Reserve accounted for 30 percent of the world's helium. The reserve was expected to run out of helium in 2018. Despite that, a proposed bill in the United States Senate would allow the reserve to continue to sell the gas. Other large reserves were in the Hugoton in Kansas, United States, and nearby gas fields of Kansas and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. New helium plants were scheduled to open in 2012 in Qatar, Russia, and the US state of Wyoming, but they were not expected to ease the shortage.
   BULLET::::- Physics in Speech with audio samples that demonstrate the unchanged voice pitch
  
  BULLET::::- Article about helium and other noble gases
  
  Helium shortage
  
  BULLET::::- America’s Helium Supply: Options for Producing More Helium from Federal Land: Oversight Hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House Of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, Thursday, July 11, 2013
  
  BULLET::::- Helium Program: Urgent Issues Facing BLM's Storage and Sale of Helium Reserves: Testimony before the Committee on Natural Resources, House of Representatives Government Accountability Office
   High helium content of natural gas is accompanied by high contents of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The percentage of nitrogen is usually 10 to 20 times that of helium, so that natural gas with 5 percent or more helium may have little or no methane. A representative sample from the Pinta Dome in Apache County, Arizona, for instance, has 8.3 percent helium, 89.9 percent nitrogen, 1 percent carbon dioxide, and only 0.1 percent methane. In such cases, the gas is produced solely for its helium content.
   In response, research organisations have allocated funds for grants for small scale liquefiers for research purposes. According to estimates from the Division of Materials Research, there are potentially hundreds of research groups for which it would be economically viable to purchase such a system, but who do not have the necessary funds, as only a small fraction can be assisted by such grant programs.
   According to these research organisations, adverse effects of the high price of helium on research are already beginning to be seen: scientists are abandoning areas of research that require liquid helium, professors are having to cut hiring of graduate students, and institutions are moving away from hiring new faculty in areas of research that require the use of liquid helium.
  
  Section::::Development of the helium industry.
  
  In 1914, helium was mooted in Britain and the United States as a replacement for hydrogen in barrage balloons and aircraft.
   In the United States, most helium is extracted from natural gas of the Hugoton and nearby gas fields in Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Panhandle Field in Texas. Much of this gas was once sent by pipeline to the National Helium Reserve, but since 2005 this reserve is being depleted and sold off, and is expected to be largely depleted by 2021, under the October 2013 "Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act" (H.R. 527).
   The abundances of the noble gases in the universe decrease as their atomic numbers increase. Helium is the most common element in the universe after hydrogen, with a mass fraction of about 24%. Most of the helium in the universe was formed during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but the amount of helium is steadily increasing due to the fusion of hydrogen in stellar nucleosynthesis (and, to a very slight degree, the alpha decay of heavy elements). Abundances on Earth follow different trends; for example, helium is only the third most abundant noble gas in the atmosphere. The reason is that there is no primordial helium in the atmosphere; due to the small mass of the atom, helium cannot be retained by the Earth's gravitational field. Helium on Earth comes from the alpha decay of heavy elements such as uranium and thorium found in the Earth's crust, and tends to accumulate in natural gas deposits. The abundance of argon, on the other hand, is increased as a result of the beta decay of potassium-40, also found in the Earth's crust, to form argon-40, which is the most abundant isotope of argon on Earth despite being relatively rare in the Solar System. This process is the basis for the potassium-argon dating method. Xenon has an unexpectedly low abundance in the atmosphere, in what has been called the "missing xenon problem"; one theory is that the missing xenon may be trapped in minerals inside the Earth's crust. After the discovery of xenon dioxide, research showed that Xe can substitute for Si in quartz. Radon is formed in the lithosphere by the alpha decay of radium. It can seep into buildings through cracks in their foundation and accumulate in areas that are not well ventilated. Due to its high radioactivity, radon presents a significant health hazard; it is implicated in an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the United States alone.
   Diffusion of crude natural gas through special semipermeable membranes and other barriers is another method to recover and purify helium. In 1996, the U.S. had "proven" helium reserves, in such gas well complexes, of about 147 billion standard cubic feet (4.2 billion SCM). At rates of use at that time (72 million SCM per year in the U.S.; see pie chart below) this would have been enough helium for about 58 years of U.S. use, and less than this (perhaps 80% of the time) at world use rates, although factors in saving and processing impact effective reserve numbers.
   While formerly most of the helium production technologies were in the United States, additional producing countries slowly appeared, and Qatar, Canada, Algeria and Russia are producers of the gas. In 2015, this new production resulted in a surplus of supply over demand. The United States, which has historically been an exporter of helium, will soon become an importer for the first time in its history. Since 2013 the world's largest helium hub is no longer located in the United States of America but in Qatar, which produces 1.3 billion cubic feet of helium per year from a single project and meets 25% of the global demand. One challenge related to bringing new helium sources onto the market is that it usually requires venture capital financing. Another challenge is that the current selling price of U.S. Cliffside helium is too low to encourage more new producers to enter the field.
   Section::::New producers.
   One consequence of fears of helium shortages are attempts to improve production volume. It is profitable for natural gas manufacturers to recover helium from sources containing more than 0.3 percent. Part of the strategy of the 2013 Helium Stewardship Act, currently implemented by the United States Department of Energy through its Advanced Manufacturing Office of Isotopes within the Office of Nuclear Physics in the United States Department of Energy Office of Science, was to improve the economics of recovering helium beyond that threshold by making advances in the membrane technology used in the production process.
   High prices have caused research organisations to issue recommendations to both the United States government and researchers on how to conserve helium by reducing consumption. In the wake of high prices, more researchers have invested in gas-capture systems to reduce their helium consumption. Such systems can pay for themselves within three years.
   The average price of liquid helium in North America in 2013 was around $6 per liter and represents the lower end of the price range; Europe with around $10 per liter is in the middle, whereas Latin America and Asia expends the highest band range of $13–15 per liter.
  
  Section::::Special situation of researchers.
   A large volume of helium was stored underground in the Cliffside field in the decade following the Helium Act Amendments of 1960. In recent years, the reserve has been systematically selling its helium. As of 2012 the United States National Helium Reserve still accounted for 30 percent of the world's helium. The reserve was expected to run out of helium in 2018.
  
  Section::::Trade.
  
  The United States is a major exporter of helium.
   On Earth it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere. Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements (thorium and uranium, although there are other examples), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations as great as 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation. Previously, terrestrial helium—a non-renewable resource, because, once released into the atmosphere it readily escapes into space—was thought to be in increasingly short supply. However, recent studies suggest that helium produced deep in the earth by radioactive decay can collect in natural gas reserves in larger than expected quantities, in some cases, having been released by volcanic activity.
   By 2003, the natural gas fields of the Great Plains of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, still held important reserves, but out of 100 BCF of total measured helium reserves in the US, 61 BCF was contained in the Riley Ridge field of western Wyoming, a gas deposit produced for its carbon dioxide content. 
   The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 and subsequent increased demand for helium has lead to market volatility and the entrance of significant new producers. Intermittent shortages or price increases have motivated helium users to find new ways to save on helium consumption. A lack of helium supply can affect researchers and industrial users of helium, and may lead to loss of research materials and equipment. 
  
  Section::::Perspectives on helium stocking and conservation.
   All commercial helium is recovered from natural gas. Helium usually makes up a minuscule portion of natural gas, but can make up as much as 10 percent of natural gas in some fields. A helium content of 0.3 percent or more is considered necessary for commercial helium extraction. In 2012, helium was recovered at 16 extraction plants, from gas wells in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. One extraction plant in Utah was idle in 2012.
  
  Section::::History.
   Almost all helium on Earth is a result of radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. Helium is extracted by fractional distillation from natural gas, which contains up to 7% helium. The world's largest helium-rich natural gas fields are found in the United States, especially in the Hugoton and nearby gas fields in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The extracted helium is stored underground in the National Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, the self-proclaimed "Helium Capital of the World". Helium production is expected to decline along with natural gas production in these areas.
   From 1917 to 1962, the Bureau of Mines was the primary producer of helium and it remained the sole purifier of helium until 1963. Leading up to the early 1960s, there was a rapid growth in government demand in the United States for helium. It was fuelled by the military, especially for aerospace applications such as liquid fuel rockets for defense and space exploration. The amount of stored helium was very small before 1962 and the amount of available helium was essentially determined by the production of natural gas, from which it is separated as a side product, rather than by market forces.
   According to helium conservationists like Nobel laureate physicist Robert Coleman Richardson, writing in 2010, the free market price of helium has contributed to "wasteful" usage (e.g. for helium balloons). Prices in the 2000s had been lowered by the decision of the U.S. Congress to sell off the country's large helium stockpile by 2015. According to Richardson, the price needed to be multiplied by 20 to eliminate the excessive wasting of helium. In their book, the "Future of helium as a natural resource" (Routledge, 2012), Nuttall, Clarke & Glowacki (2012) also proposed to create an International Helium Agency (IHA) to build a sustainable market for this precious commodity.
   Several research organisations have released statements on the scarcity and conservation of helium. Among these are the American Physical Society, counting approximately 53,000 members, the Materials Research Society, an international organisation with 16,000 members, and the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society with some 158,000 members. These organisations released policy recommendations as early as 1995 and as late as 2016 urging the United States government to store and conserve helium because of the natural limits to the helium supply and the unique nature of the element. For researchers, helium is irreplaceable because it is essential for producing very low temperatures. In recent years, concerns about high prices and the occurrence of a shortage in 2006-7 have also contributed to calls for helium conservation and measures to lower the price of helium for researchers from these organisations. Not only the level of prices imposes hardships on researchers, but also their volatility. As researchers often work with essentially fixed budgets, sudden rises in the price of helium lead to a lack of sufficient funds for their research projects. An example from the United States of America clearly demonstrates the effect on researchers’ budgets: while in the mid-2000s individual investigator awards from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research were approximately $130,000 annually, and a typical low-temperature researcher spent up to $15,000 of their grant annually on liquid helium, in 2015 the typical Division of Materials Research grant for an individual investigator has only barely increased to $140,000 per year while researchers now have to spend upwards of $40,000—more than one quarter of their grant—on liquid helium. Currently, liquid helium can represent upwards of 30% of the cost of some low-temperature research projects.
   Helium is the second lightest element and is the second most abundant in the observable universe. Most helium was formed during the Big Bang, but new helium is being created as a result of the nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars. On Earth, helium is relatively rare and is created by the natural decay of some radioactive elements because the alpha particles that are emitted consist of helium nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations of up to seven percent by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation.
   The Four Corners area of the southwest US has a number of gas fields containing 5 to 10 percent helium and large percentages of nitrogen, with little or no hydrocarbons. The fields are associated with igneous intrusions. One field, Dineh-bi-Keyah in Arizona, produced oil from a fractured sill. The other fields have no associated oil. 
  
  Helium-rich gas fields in the United States
  
  Section::::Processing.
  
  Helium is marketed in two specifications: crude helium, which typically contains 75 percent to 80 percent helium, and Grade A helium, which is 99.995 percent pure.
  
  Section::::Storage.
   All commercial production of helium comes from natural gas. There are two basic types of commercial helium deposits: natural gas produced primarily for the hydrocarbon content, typically containing less than 3 percent helium; and gas with little or no hydrocarbons, produced solely for the helium, which typically makes up between 5 and 10 percent of the gas. Although natural gas in which helium is only a byproduct contains a much lower percentage of helium, historically it has supplied the most helium.
  