
Not just balloons. Helium shortage may deflate MRIs, airbags and research - bookofjoe
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/10/helium-shortage-could-deflate-mris-manufacturing-and-research/1169464001/
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codewritinfool
I have a friend that is a professional diver and he says he was told from his
gas supplier that there is no helium shortage. According to that guy, one of
the places helium comes from is natural gas wells, and we have a lot of them.

So what's the truth?

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db48x
For a long time there was not much use for helium, so it was wasted (vented in
to the atmosphere). Then we started storing it. Then we sold off the stored
helium, driving the prices down. Now we're out of stored helium and the prices
are going up again.

~~~
Simulacra
And so we’re just back to letting the market decide, or will there’s be a
replenishing of the reserve?

~~~
db48x
Demand must be a lot higher than it used to be, or we wouldn't have been able
to sell the reserve fast enough to deplete it. As the price rises, some uses
of it won't be worth the cost, and critical uses will have to become more
efficient. I doubt demand will drop so much that there will be a large reserve
again.

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dang
Discussion at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19887816](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19887816)

