[ RadSafe ] Helium suppies endangered, threatening science and technology

[Dukelow, James S Jr]

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Roger Helbig
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 3:01 AM
To: Radsafe
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Helium suppies endangered,threatening science and
technology

Helium supplies endangered, threatening science and technology News from
Washington University in St. Louis - Saint Louis,MO,USA By Tony
Fitzpatrick The element that lifts things like balloons, spirits and
voice ranges is being depleted so rapidly in the world's largest
reserve, ...

http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/10754.html

   <snip>

=================

The Washington University PR release has only a vague allusion as to how
we got into the helium supply crunch.

The Helium Wiki at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#_note-16  provides more
background and some links to additional information.

The US government used to run the program to extract helium from natural
gas and store it in the Nation Helium Reserve in the Texas Panhandle.
The Helium Privatization Act of 1996, Public Law 104-273, was one of the
recommendations of the Clinton Administration's National Partnership for
Reinventing Government.  The law was passed by the Republican 104th
Congress and signed by President Clinton.  The law mandated a National
Academy of Sciences study of The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium
Reserve, which report, of the same name, is available at the NAS
website, www.nas.edu .

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow at pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.