Originally Posted by
S.o.S.
Some may be interested in this thread on another balloon style device. Please bear in mind that this is the main
Rumours & News forum and you should read the entire thread before asking any questions!!!!
Keeping it in this forum, there indeed no short-term shortage of helium, the price has come down a lot. Long-term, helium released into the atmosphere is lost, the earth's gravity is not strong enough to retain it, and it is lost to space.
There are several economically-viable sources of helium, one of which is lithium mining, which is very much du jour with the demand for EVs and the batteries to power them. In the long term, helium is a fossil fuel, it's the result of radioactive decay of fissile elements stored in rocks and sands, from when the earth was a lot more radioactive, and the generation of new helium by these same rocks and sand is now negligible.
Releasing helium is as irresponsible as burning fossil fuels. There's only so much left, and when it's gone, it will be regenerated for the remaining radioactive rocks at a very slow rate.
Every helium vessel outgasses, the molecule is so small it finds its way out of any containment vessel (look at how quickly helium balloons go limp). So when you extract helium, it's a short path to releasing it into space.
Nuclear fission will release plenty of Helium 4 by smashing tritium into deuterium. Unfortunately we haven't made it work yet on a large scale.
Justapax1
B Sc (Nuclear and Quantum Physics) M Sc (Microwaves and Modern Optics) D Sc (Radiation Physics)
Trust me, I'm a Physicist!