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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 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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