Helium is commercially produced as a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Until the mid-1990s, the United States Bureau of Mines operated a large scale helium storage facility to support government requirements for helium. The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 and subsequent increased demand for helium has led 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.
Perspectives on helium stocking and conservation As early as 1982, there were discussions from multiple points of view about the possibility of helium shortage. One such point of discussion was to examine the usefulness of helium storage in the United States from an economic perspective. The maximisation of welfare resulting from this finite natural resource was the focal point of people of this school of thought. This economic approach is represented by the present value criterion. According to this criterion, a resource is ideally sold at the moment that the profit plus compounded interest is expected to be higher than it will be at any point in the foreseeable future, thus ensuring maximal economic value. On the other hand, there were people who advocated a more conservationist approach in the belief that the present value criterion resulted in too rapid use of the resource and too little consideration of the needs of future generations. Some scientists suggested that helium ought to be separated from as many sources as would be energetically ideal. Discussions continue. The occurrence of a worldwide helium shortage in 2006-7 made such concerns more pressing. This shortage caused price spikes and a complete cut-off of supply for some prospective buyers. Some equipment can become useless or permanently damaged without an adequate helium supply. For example, an uninterrupted supply of liquid helium is necessary for a vast number of university researchers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and high-tech industries. Without liquid helium, all magnetic resonance imaging machines would become inoperable and there is currently no equivalent diagnostic technology to replace them. As a consequence, helium shortages are a very serious matter for certain groups. However, helium has a much wider range of applications. It has been used in other research laboratories, lighter-than-air craft, rockets, welding under inert conditions, producing breathing mixtures for deep-sea diving, respiratory therapy, and in cryogenics. Aside from laboratory applications and cryogenics, not all these uses exploit the unique properties of helium, which is therefore replaceable. One consequence of fears of helium shortages is 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. 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 extend the highest band range of $13–15 per liter.
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