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A comment on Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock. Parent comment

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by stevenwoo on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:33PM (#47368681)
All natural gas deposits contain helium at various concentrations, it's only commercially worth harvesting above a certain percentage but speculate the problem is the US can't just fill the Qatar loss in supply immediately since we have plentiful natural gas.
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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by trollbridge on Friday March 13, 2026 @04:01PM (#47369083)
Makes sense.

We have so much gas where I live that there are places it’s just flared off and burned, because it’s less greenhouse emissions than it escaping unburned.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by GeorgeWBasic on Friday March 13, 2026 @04:09PM (#47369191)
If it's being burned, it isn't helium.
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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by HPsquared on Friday March 13, 2026 @04:24PM (#47369361)
Parent is referring to natural gas
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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by XorNot on Friday March 13, 2026 @04:51PM (#47369700)
Helium deposits don't exist is the thing, the same structures in the Earth which trap methane gas also trap helium gas and some of them trap enough to make recovery economically viable.
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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by HPsquared on Saturday March 14, 2026 @07:02PM (#47382208)
And that helium comes from Alpha decay of Uranium and Thorium.
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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by hedora on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:49PM (#47373159)
Today, I learned Helium does burn, and when it burns, it forms Carbon.

https://www.britannica.com/science/chemical-element/Processe...

Granted, the flare gas probably doesn't reach the prerequisite 100M-200M kelvin. I suspect high pressure is also required so the Helium stays close to the heat source.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by roywiggins on Friday March 13, 2026 @05:42PM (#47370352)
An unusually large helium deposit in the US made the news recently, not sure if it's being exploited:

https://www.minnpost.com/other-nonprofit-media/2024/07/what-...

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