Discovery of large helium deposit in Tanzania

Maybe we won't be running out as soon as we thought. Helium

I could not understand why the US was trying to get rid of the stuff. It has so many scientific and industrial uses. For a while they were purposely trying to deplete the Texas panhandle reserve!?!?

I'm sure there was a reason. Perhaps an insanely stupid one, but I'm sure there was one. Maybe it was decided that kids have too much fun inhaling the stuff and talking funny.

Didn't the US end their "US Helium Program" in 1995? I thought you had huge reserves of it prior. He is an awesome coolant for superconductors, as the boiling point is -269*C. Also useful in aerospace as a cleaner of sorts, and in MRI components and microscopes as an inert atmosphere.

He also has a very low solubility which makes it great for sparging, or taking the air pockets out of, organic solvents.

Village idiot has question

What is all this business about? Had never heard a a large He deposit??

Please briefly explain.

Cheers

US helium reserve was created around 1930 to store helium underground in Texas? It was in the crude oil and not being saved. The navy set up the reserve to save the He for airships for war time emergency use. nazis were not allowed to buy it for their zeppelins so they had to use hydrogen instead. We know what happened to the Hindenburg because of that!
Sometime around 1950 the navy airship era ended when they decided helicopters were here to stay. So they sold off the reserves and sold the used blimps to Goodyear for cheap. Do you see an atomic bomb being dropped from an airship as it speeds away from the mushroom cloud?
Not sure when all the used car dealers were able to buy all the barrage balloons? I do not remember them as a kid.
Bill D.

Over the decades gas suppliers have been fined millions of dollars for price fixing. Helium used for shielding is very expensive and it is good news.... Here's hoping that the helium is accessed on a free market and prices are not fixed/manipulated by some unknown.

I have a cousin who traveled around the country filling MRI machines with He. He explained it to me briefly but I was unclear as to whether the helium was gaseous or liquid.
I worked for a natural gas distribution company that had several peak shaving strategies used during the winter and especially during cold snaps here in MN.
!. Interruptible customers. Large users had a stand by heating fuel(usually propane) they would switch to when necessary. They paid a special low rate for agreeing to this arrangement.The utility checked 100% for compliance and hefty surcharges were assessed for lack there of.
2.Propane tank farms equipped with large boilers to rapidly gasify the LPG which was mixed with air 50/50 to match the btu content and then mixed with the normal natural gas supply.
3.LNG(liquified natural gas) stored in a gigantic insulated double walled tank. The inner tank was 7 feet smaller in radius than the outer tank. The space between the tank walls was styrofoamed. The tanks contents were insulated by a floating cover of the same material. During the warm months the tank was filled from 1500psi pipelines and then compressed/chilled until liquifaction was achieved. In the winter the LNG was gasified with boilers. I never learned the gas pressure the boilers achieved but there were pipelines serviced by the facility between 80 and 1500psi. The equipment was regularly "exercised" whether used or not.
4.Subterranean storage in an aquifer at 1200 deep. In the warm months a 1500psiwas used to create a huge bubble in the aquifer. The pipeline pressure was regulated down to 350psi and introduced to the aquifer via many 12 inch wells. One of the monitoring wells was more than 20 miles from the compressor/control station. I don't remember the capacity of the field but I do recall that there was a multimillion cubic foot penalty when comparing input/output. In the winter they'd configure the well piping to feed back to the compressor station where the gas went through water separators before being compressed back to 1500psi and being piped to the Twin Cities.
I worked in corrosion control and it was the best job in the whole company.Another corrosion tech just retired @ $70K/yr. + lots of O.T.-- 401k @ 10% with a 5% match--take home truck so we started @ 7:30 from home and quit @ 4:00 at home==Fully paid health insurance for employee only--free term insurance for 150% of annual base pay. Sounds pretty good doesn't it. The management and work place was so toxic that I quit 21 years ago. I haven't regretted it for a second although I feel a slight twinge when I think about the $1200/mo. in lost pension and the 401K/IRA theoretical loss of $250k.

Helium was used in valve control systems on the early Rocketdyne engines such as Jupiter, Thor, Atlas and Navaho. The molecules are quite small and this permitted very fast solenoid openings to operate the liquid oxygen and fuel valves on the engines.

Because of its size, helium was also very difficult to contain in the stainless steel pressure tubes that were used. Unless the tapers in the fittings were smooth and polished, they were guaranteed to leak.

When I worked in manufacturing there it was used in the original Heliarc welding process with DC current for shielding gas although modernly argon is used much more often.

It's amazing that someone made the decision to eliminate the US storage of Helium since it has so many uses in science.

I have around the shop, a cylinder of A75 that is just the cats pajamas for aluminum thicker than 1/2"

It is also useful for "cosmetically sensitive" stainless welds.