1y ago

"A dream. It's perfect": Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America

www.cbsnews.com

"A dream. It's perfect": Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America::For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.

117 comments

Hopefully we stop wasting this limited resource on fucking balloons.
Edit: well this kicked off a fun and respectful conversation. The information I can find from actual scientists says wasting helium on balloons is bad. The balloon lobby says it is just a waste byproduct. The balloon lobby brings nothing of value to the world in terms of plastic or helium use, so I'm going to go with the science opinion on this one.
- The helium used for balloons is of low purity.
  The shortages you hear about are of pure or near pure helium. The stuff going into the balloons at Tommy's birthday party isn't the same thing used to cool superconductors.
  EDIT: And I used to think Reddit was full of ignorant jackasses ...
  
  Balloon helium is 3% helium. So every 33 balloons is one Balloon worth of pure helium. No helium starts off pure. It all gets concentrated/separated to get that way. "Balloon grade" helium can be concentrated just fine and considering that thousands of those balloons are filled every day, it is a lot of wasted helium.
  *I had my percentage swapped, it seems. Balloon helium is 97% helium.
  
  What the fuck are you on about? Helium is an element. Doesn’t matter if it’s low purity it’s wasted and then gone. When the high purity stuff is gone we can’t be like “thank god we can purify the low wall quality stuff” when that’s gone too
  
  Using it for balloons is still a waste because that impure helium could be purified for better uses.
  
  wdym by "low purity" helium, helium that has been purified cryogenically is easily 99.999% if not better, and this is the main process used worldwide iirc
  
  right or wrong, you're an asshole. Nobody did anything but disagree with you, you're the only one insulting strangers. Quit being an ass.
  
  This is like saying gold nuggets are worthless because people want refined products made of gold...
  It's fucking helium bro, it's easy to separate it from anything else. Because it's the lightest noble gas...
  Fill a balloon with 10% helium and 90% atmosphere, and the top 10% of the balloon is pure helium.
  That's how easy it is to sepeeate it.
- Hopefully we stop wasting this limited resource on fucking balloons.
  I don't recommend fucking balloons. The squeaks are annoying and the pops hurt.
  
  You need more lube.
- I think for balloons we should switch back to hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?
  
  It would make birthday parties more fun
  
  Probably not much. The hydrogen that a party balloon would contain could certainly make a small, exciting explosion, but it probably wouldn't have enough energy to set anything else on fire.
- helium just boils off in MRI/NMR machines, this is the major use of helium i think. if you could recycle that in machines that already are out there, that would solve lots of problems. there are newer systems that do not require cryogens or just require liquid nitrogen which is much cheaper and less energy intensive. these things use closed loop refrigeration, but in turn you need to supply them with power
  
  Sounds like superconductor research could end up fixing that problem. Once we have a suitable conductor material, you no longer need to keep it that cool.
- And giant blimps.
- The helium used for balloons is not the same type of helium used in medical and scientific equipment.
  
  Wdym? The only difference is the helium gas used in more serious applications is more pure. Its helium all the same.
Thomas Abraham-James, CEO of Pulsar Helium
Oh my god, fuck this. Have we learned nothing? Nationalize that supply right now.
- What should we have learned? I'm out of the loop.
  
  That letting capitalists gatekeep access to essential resources is a terrible idea.
  
  Don't waste your limited resources on party balloons
Somewhere in that mine we're gonna have a bunch of iron miners getting squeaky voices and start sounding like the seven dwarfs.
- If there's so much helium inside the earth, then why doesn't the earth float away?
  
  So that's why it doesn't just fall into the Sun!
- I'm }picturing dudes coming up from underground looking just a little bit dirty pretending to wipe off all the helium they've been mining while huge dump trucks and conveyor belts industriously rumble away carrying literally nothing nowhere. A concerned supervisor runs over to one of the miners like "god damn it Joel,. I told you to be careful. You're covered in helium! We're you even wearing your protective gloves? Look at your hands
  . The men g)are angrily as a dumpy Rick carying a load of helium }pulls around just as one of the execs from head office pulls up in a golf cart, leisurely motions to the dump truck driver to stop, and cautiously climbs up into the bed of the truck to reach in. He climbs down, looking bemused, running his thumb and index finger together.
  " Fine helium boys, great work out there today" he says after gingerly tasting nothing on his finger.
  " But see, we've got a little problem".
  The men, grizzled helium miners all, look concerned but defiant. These rugged hardworking may ultimately be under this man's purview, but they'll never respect soft hands with manicured nails that have never felt thing ring of the pickaxe against a brand new helium de}osit deep in mother earth.
  The men's defiance seems ready to boil over in rage as security personal, a dozen of them, from lines around the mean, prepared for any trouble that might arise.
  You see", the executive drawls smugly " recent shipments have been a little.... Light".
  The men look around nervously, as if a{using looking at Joel on purpose. This is a trepidation the executive does not share as,. Motioning to security guards he walks towards Joel.
  " Say, ajoel, is it? How were the men's today. "
  Joe smiles wanly, says nothing.
  " Well, Joel? What's it like down there, huh?
  Joel \inces as he replies " it was good" his voice is as high pitched as the backing of a 90s techno song. Joel is grabbed by security guards as the executive roughly reaches into Joel's c{versllys.
  He holds an empty hand up as if holding something, displaying it before the miners.
  " Aha! Pure helium. Our helium. And don't you forget it boys. "
  Then men glare angrily at the executive, sympathetically at Joe, as they head off towards the showers to cleanse themselves of helium residue before heading home
- Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...
- I was hoping for a recording of the news release about this discovery in that helium-elevated voice.
This is actually incredibly good news
- Not really, because we're still pissing away invaluable helium because of capitalism...
  If we keep doing that, it doesn't really matter how much we find.
  We need to stop wasting it first, then finding huge supplies is a good thing. As long as we're not dumb enough to start wasting it again.
  
  Ah yes, we're wasting helium, so finding more isn't a good thing. Of course. 🙄
  
  How are we wasting it? Keep in mind that the helium used for stuff like balloons is not the same as the helium used in medical equipment. Also keep in mind that even if it were, the amount of helium used in balloons would be less than 1% of total usage.
  So I ask again, how are we wasting it?
How do you find helium? Did everyone suddenly start talking like chipmonks?
[off topic]
"The Guns Above" by Robyn Bennis. What if Napoleonic armies had an unlimited supply of helium? The author does a great job of describing 1800's airships and their tactics.
Fun book.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
MINNEAPOLIS — Scientists and researchers are celebrating what they call a "dream" discovery after an exploratory drill confirmed a high concentration of helium buried deep in Minnesota's Iron Range.
Prior to arriving in Minnesota, Abraham-James was working in Tanzania, where another helium discovery was made, but at half the concentration as found in the Iron Range.
The inert gas is likely known by most consumers for filling balloons and blimps, but it's actually one of the most sought-after commodities in the world because of its versatility; as a liquid, helium is among the most effective and safest coolants around.
Dr. Grant Larson, a radiologist at Hennepin Healthcare, said the health system's four MRI machines rely on helium to operate.
"We're aware that it could potentially render us vulnerable to not being able to provide access to our patients," Dr. Larson told CBS News Minnesota.
"It's not just about drilling one hole, but now proving up the geological models, being able to get some really good data that wasn't captured in the original discovery," he explained.
The original article contains 438 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 60%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

117 comments