Helium Shortage

Helium reserve has reached lowest level prompting doctors to call for a ban on using the gas in party balloons.

20:20 29 June 2016

Helium reserve has reached the lowest level causing scientists to panic. The life-saving gas, which is not renewable or replaceable, serves a wide variety of purposes in the field of medicine, being a key to MRI scanners and nuclear power.

 

In an attempt to conserve helium, doctors have called for a ban on using the gas for frivolous activities like party balloons.

 

However, the shortage seems to be over following the discovery of “world-class” helium gas field in Tanzania. According to the researchers, the field probably has 54 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in just one part, which is enough to fill 1.2 million MRI scanners. We use about 8Bcf per year, and the world’s largest helium supplier holds only 24Bcf.

 

Professor Chris Ballentine from the University of Oxford’s department of Earth sciences said: “This is a game changer for the future security of society’s helium needs and similar finds in the future may not be far away.”

 

Meanwhile, professor Jon Gluyas from Durham University’s department of Earth sciences, said: “We have to keep finding more, it's not renewable or replaceable,”