Given its scarcity, helium should be more expensive, to the point where filling party balloons with it is decadent profligacy.
Privatization seems like a really bad idea to me. Helium is non-renewable resource. Privatization is about being ‘efficient’ at maximising profits. Do you think the people / companies that own the helium reserves are going to be interested in keeping helium available for centuries in the future? I’d say probably not.
For a profit based company, the only motivation to preserve the helium for future use is that maybe it will be worth a lot more money in the future. But there are two big problems with that. Firstly, the timescale is likely to be too long for the profit to be of interest. And secondly, the main reason the price would go up is scarcity; and that scarcity will come sooner if the helium is wasted in the short term. (Unless one company actually has a monopoly on helium, in which case they can create artificial scarcity by just not selling it. But that would obviously be bad for other reasons.)
The thing with helium though is that it’s already privatized. The geologic formations that trap helium from uranium and thorium decay are the exact formations that trap fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. Whether it’s worth it to capture that helium is purely market driven by private interests. Most of it is just off gassed into space instead of separated. All that government production has amounted to is making helium cheap enough to put in balloons and use on wasteful cryo applications with no recovery mechanism like it was subsidized, making separating it from natural gas uneconomical. Increasing the price would decrease the monumental waste we already do.
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/60/12/10/413018/Helium-scarcity-blamed-on-waste
I mean it is expensive, it’s just the amount required for a balloon is insignificant and thus seems cheap.
As a diver who uses helium I can tell you it is, compared to air, so much more expensive they actually charge me for it (rather than just rolled into the cost of a dive) - to the sum of about $300 a dive - depending on depth.
What is helium used for when diving?
Reducing the amount of narcotic gases in your mix so you don’t act like a drunk idiot when in a life threatening situation.
Those narcotic gases are nitrogen and oxygen (although there’s only so little oxygen you can have…and also only so much!)
Edit: extra info: oxygen and nitrogen are narcotic at depth, nitrogen is better understood and so often we talk about nitrogen narcosis, which tends to start hitting people after about 30m, but each person reacts different and to different degrees at different deaths. I personally notice it at about 50m or so. If I was more relaxed while diving it’d probably hit me sooner.
and to different degrees at different deaths.
Was that supposed to say depths?
Yes. Yes it was.
Awesome thank you!
Most welcome! I can talk endlessly about diving so welcome the question.
I added an edit with some more information incase you’re more curious.
Are there other gasses that could be used. E.g some of the noble gasses like argon or neon?
Hydrogen is used at extreme depths, but isn’t so good at moderate depths, and has its own issues, like being flammable as all fuck
Ah very interesting, and yes theoretically I believe. Some people are experimenting with other gases due to the price and low availability of Helium.
Rebreathers are becoming a lot more accessible these days and so are making dives much cheaper, but they’re still $20k so it takes a while to recoup the cost.
Mylar balloons should be outlawed. They get sent free and land on power lines WAY too often. Over a thousand mylar balloon caused power outages are recorded in just Southern California alone in a typical year. The cost of repairing the damage might even exceed the revenue of mylar balloon sales.
We should go back to filling them with hydrogen.
What could go wrong?
I mean other than that…
Would make for more exciting birthday parties.
When I was in school decades ago, my science teacher brought in a big balloon filled with hydrogen and lit the string on fire without telling us that it was filled with hydrogen.
I could feel the explosion in my bones. It was neat.
I’m not sure you could do that in schools today.
There will absolutely still be a customer that takes a balloon from behind the sign and asks for it to be filled up in the store.
They will demand it or else poor Kayla’lin 'da Leeigh Lynn Lee’s princess party will be ruined.
I think you just summoned an Elder God.
“I̡̖̝͔̯͌̄̈́ ̧̙̮̈̈́H̥̫̭͈̖̐̆̒̂̓̾A̼͚̘̦̼͂͌̇͒̏̌͝Ṽ̡̡͙͙͌́̽Ȩ̮̝̪̞͖̍͆̋͋̄̒͝ͅ ̳̙͝R̥͕̱̠̱̈̈́͜I͎͒͌̋͗̈̑͜͝S̨͙̻͍̺̟̾Ẹ̳̖̖̼̥̊̓̆Ǹ̡̳͍̏͒͛̉̃̀,̳̅̋͑ ̡̡̠̗͈́͑̌A̡̧̛̦͛̅̎̄͒͂Ṅ̨͕͈͍͎͆̑̕D̻̑̾̔̊̉͊̚ͅ ̧̳̙̳͗̈́͊͊̓͝Ḭ̻̗̻̥̙͉̀̒̂͛̈́ ̢̡̯͖̩̻͍͛D̰͔͇͉̪̆E̛̝̻͇͚̼̤͗̊̑̀͋͜M͕̯̠͎̳͌͛͐͒̋͑Ä̹̺̥̤́̓̾̕N̝͎̓̓̆͋͐D͇̺̮̠̏͊̌͐̍̚͠.͓̼̰̈́͛̈̈͊.̺͎͖̰͔̻̇̂̉̈́̌.̢̮̣͖̳͖̜́͌ ̫̰̗͋P͔͗̑͆O̳͛͌̂̎̀Ṅ̦̣͖̭Ḭ̱̖̊̂Ė̛̠̺̭̓̉Ś̞͔͍̠̟͓̦̿̈́̆”
Just use hot air. Lots of that to go around.
We also need to end road work while were at it. Enough is enough!!
why don’t we just bring a shitload back from saturn or something
Nobody’s stopping you!
Dont you tell me what i can do!!
I double dog dare you
Don’t you mean “outlaw α-decay” instead?
I just work here, sir. I’m not a scientician.
not only are these plastic bags shit and the people finding joy in in imbeciles, but helium doesnt grow on plants. it is limited.
Counterargument: everything is limited, and all joyful people are imbeciles to some extent
fair
Well, the half lives of the stuff that produces helium are generally above 500 million years so we’ll still be making more of it for a very long time, but the reserves we’ve found trapped in geologic formations certainly are limited. /s
