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A comment on Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find'. Parent comment

Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by XorNot on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @10:33AM (#11994071)
No the big stockpile was paid for by cold war stockpiling, and it's cheap now because congress has mandated a sale of a huge quantity with no floor price consideration for that cost.
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by ASalazarMX on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @11:38AM (#11994592)
What is this congress that imposes Helium prices worldwide?
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by smaddox on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @02:34PM (#11996271)
US Congress decided to sell off the US stockpile. Since they're selling lower than anyone else can produce, they're basically the only source. Therefore, they are the global supply and they are setting worldwide prices.
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by witty_username on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @11:57AM (#11994789)
Grandparent comment means the US Congress, which does legislation.
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by dogma1138 on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @10:41AM (#11994144)
Yes that stockpile we got was mainly from US and later Russian cold era nuclear weapon production and research.

What's your point exactly?

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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by jonas21 on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @11:55AM (#11994771)
That's untrue. The stockpile comes from gas fields -- helium is mixed in with some natural gas deposits, and can be extracted from it.

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

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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by dogma1138 on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @12:01PM (#11994827)
That's incorrect, you are confusing between Helium-4 and Helium-3.

The main source for Helium-3 which is the one we are in shortage of was and is the US nuclear weapons program primarily through the decay of tritium.

https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41419.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium#Helium-3_and_tritium

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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by flubert on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @12:19PM (#11994996)
As near as I can tell, you are the only one discussing helium-3 and its shortage. Maybe everyone should be talking about helium-3, but unfortunately they are not. Suggestions?
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by URSpider94 on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @02:59PM (#11996503)
No, there is actually a global shortage of Helium-4 as well.
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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by flubert on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @11:50AM (#11994717)
The Strategic Helium Reserve is a consequence of WWI and the desire to not be subject to shortages of Helium for lighter-than-air craft during wartime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve

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Re:Huge helium discovery 'a life-saving find' by dogma1138 on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @12:02PM (#11994843)
The strategic reserve is for Helium 4 primarily, were talking about Helium 3 which is a rare isotope of Helium.
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