Researchers joining forces to buy helium

Whenever I meet researchers working in low-temperature physics, the worry are helium prices. When I did my PhD a long time ago, I was able to buy 100 litre dewars of liquid helium without thinking too much about its price.

Since then, times have changed a lot, and prices have multiplied over the past years. The reason is that helium is a scarce commodity. In the atmosphere, helium is impossible to catch and most of it comes from underground, created by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The United States have a large stockpile underground in Texas, which when depleted will mean the end of most usable helium sources.

To combat the rising prices, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the US Defense Department’s procurement agency are now planning to bundle their forces and to buy helium for researchers at volume discounts. Nothing wrong with that, this is certainly a good idea that will make it easier for US researchers to do cryogenic experiments.

Regardless, we should not forget that helium is not a renewable resource. One group of scientists using more of it at a cheaper price ultimately means shortages elsewhere. Whether it is for science and researchers elsewhere on the globe, for medical NMR equipment, or in other areas. This is where we still need to work on. Either through improved cryostats in research, or by avoiding unnecessary uses of helium, such as in helium party balloons, which incredibly are still being sold to be released into the atmosphere for nothing.