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Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

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Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#3

Maybe this is a dumb question but if people believe helium is valuable, and we put helium into useless balloons, why aren’t people buying up large quantities of helium and saving it for inevitable price increases?

Partly because you can't store helium long term, it escapes from any known container.

There are probably individuals that have tried to store large amounts, but are going to have a sad feeling when they try to let the helium out from their million dollar bunch of tanks.

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#4

Maybe this is a dumb question but if people believe helium is valuable, and we put helium into useless balloons, why aren’t people buying up large quantities of helium and saving it for inevitable price increases?

https://www.zmescience.com/science/chemistry/wasting-helium-...

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#5
post #3

Maybe this is a dumb question but if people believe helium is valuable, and we put helium into useless balloons, why aren’t people buying up large quantities of helium and saving it for inevitable price increases?

Partly because you can't store helium long term, it escapes from any known container. There are probably individuals that have tried to store large amounts, but are going to have a sad feeling when they try to let the helium out from their million dollar bunch of tanks.

Wasn’t the National Helium Reserve[1] just that, a long term helium storage facility?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partly because you can't store helium long term, it escapes from any known container. There are probably individuals that have tried to store large amounts, but are going to have a sad feeling when they try to let the helium out from their million dollar bunch of tanks.

Wasn’t the National Helium Reserve[1] just that, a long term helium storage facility? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve

A very poorly managed one

https://earthsharing.org/a-comedy-of-errors-how-the-us-gover...

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#8
post #3

Maybe this is a dumb question but if people believe helium is valuable, and we put helium into useless balloons, why aren’t people buying up large quantities of helium and saving it for inevitable price increases?

Partly because you can't store helium long term, it escapes from any known container. There are probably individuals that have tried to store large amounts, but are going to have a sad feeling when they try to let the helium out from their million dollar bunch of tanks.

Source? I can't find anything on long term helium storage being impossible.

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#9
post #3

Maybe this is a dumb question but if people believe helium is valuable, and we put helium into useless balloons, why aren’t people buying up large quantities of helium and saving it for inevitable price increases?

Partly because you can't store helium long term, it escapes from any known container. There are probably individuals that have tried to store large amounts, but are going to have a sad feeling when they try to let the helium out from their million dollar bunch of tanks.

You could surely store it in a closed container though? Buy a bunch of tanks, weld them closed. Even try putting a thin coat of something over the sealed tank so that it's more leak resistant.

Re: Helium shortages will impact quantum computer research

#10
post #7

Should probably be noted, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 , "The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon than on Earth" and https://io9.gizmodo.com/could-helium-3-really-solve-earths-e...

This might be useful only for future fusion reactors. It's too expensive for cooling purposes though.
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