WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Helium is not a renewable resource,
at least not on any human timescale.

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It's not a fossil fuel, but it is
made very slowly by radioactive decay

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deep down in the ground.

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So in terms of managing it, we should
be treating it like a fossil fuel.

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Once it's pulled up from the ground, used,
and dispersed into the atmosphere,

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it is ludicrously expensive to recover.

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And over time, that dispersed helium is
light enough and unreactive enough that

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eventually, very, very slowly,
it escapes off into space,

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which is a problem
because helium is enormously useful.

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We use it in all sorts
of science and medicine,

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to keep the magnets in MRI machines cool,
in manufacturing processes,

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and, yes, to inflate
blimps and party balloons.

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And over the last decade or so,

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there have been a lot of
breathless news articles

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proclaiming that the world
is running out of helium.

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A lot of the world's helium comes from
under the Great Plains of the USA.

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And here in Amarillo, Texas,
the US government

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has the National Helium Reserve.

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At least, they do for now.

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- We're standing on top of the
Bush Dome,

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the reservoir that acts as the
storage reservoir,

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which is approximately 3,500 feet
underground.

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As a sponge absorbs water and
holds that water in the sponge,

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similarly, the small pores in the rock
are spaces where the helium can reside.

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It's solid rock to the eye,
but it is porous

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and allows the gas to be stored
very efficiently underground.

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This reservoir was a
natural gas reservoir.

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It was depleted, then recharged
in the sixties

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with 32 billion cubic feet of helium
into the ground.

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So it's actually helium that
we've injected previously

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that we're extracting now.

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The whole program was to conserve
the helium for about 100 years

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of the consumption rate then.

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Of course, helium has become such a
popular element, it has so many uses,

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that now, that rate is quite a bit more
than originally estimated.

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That helium has been withdrawn
over approximately 15 years.

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And we are now reaching
the end of our program

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as the field is declining in pressure.

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Helium is notoriously known for being
able to escape through any small opening.

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It's used as a leak detection substance.

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You can detect helium very easily.

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And if it's able to get out, you have a hole
somewhere in that device or product.

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By putting it back in the ground,
it's not leaking out

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of a stainless steel
container or a big truck,

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it's easily monitored and controlled.

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- The plant here is in its annual
week of maintenance right now,

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which is one of the reasons
I'm allowed to get quite this close.

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There are still parts I'm not
allowed to show you, though.

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- The equipment behind me is
actually an enrichment unit.

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All that gas that was stored in
the ground has mixed and blended

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with natural gas from the field, and
it's no longer in an enriched state.

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So by bringing it through the equipment,
we take that gas back up to

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approximately 80% purity of helium,
about 20% impurity of nitrogen.

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That's what we produce and send up
our 425-mile pipeline

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to the private helium plants
that then take it to 100%.

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There are places in the world that are
running out of helium, that's correct.

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But there's still approximately
80 to 100 years' worth

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of known helium reserves
in the United States, in Wyoming.

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So to say that we're running out of
helium is actually a little bit incorrect.

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There's still a lot of helium available
and new helium sources being found.

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With the recent increases
in the helium price,

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that's actually stimulated industry
to go look for more helium resources.

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And they have found more.

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So we expect that
in the next few years,

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more of this helium
will be brought to market.

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And the shortage will be alleviated,
at least for a short period of time.

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- Running out of something on
our current planetary scale

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doesn't mean there suddenly
won't be any at all.

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It just means that the price of what's left
will rise higher and higher and higher

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until the lower supply meets
lower demand,

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which might make some more
difficult to reach reservoirs of helium

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under the ground worth exploring.

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That's capitalism.

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Because of all that uncertainty,
the price of helium

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has been fluctuating a lot
over the last few years.

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And researchers are often having
trouble finding enough money

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to keep their experiments going.

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And yes, it's why filling party balloons
is getting really expensive.

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- We are now in the final
two years of our program

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and facing the last part of
our privatization effort.

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By the year 2021, we will be
stepping out of the helium activity

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and transferring it to private entities.

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Surprisingly enough, the question
comes up about whether or not

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we should be using party balloons.

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I happen to be a real
fan of party balloons.

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So for my preference, I still am glad
that we have party balloons.

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With the price of helium where it is,

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there's so much conservation going on now

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that the party balloons are actually
a very small part of the market.

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We've seen now in recent years
with the newer helium sources

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coming online and this great
effort towards helium conservation

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that that's really had an impact in
making more helium available for everyone.

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So I think the party balloons
kind of got a bad rap.

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- I did think about ending this video by
delivering my conclusion in a silly voice

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by breathing from a helium balloon, but
honestly, we do need to conserve helium

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and I figured that
would set a bad example.

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So this...

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...it's just regular air.

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I'm glad that flew away! That would've
looked terrible if it hadn't worked.