Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by idiotsecant on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:53PM (#47372826)

Yes, we love them on account of our country having approximately 230 times the surface area and the Netherlands having approximately 13x the population density. We not only have vastly more line to run, but also many, many fewer people per square mile to absorb the costs. Underground line is expensive.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by nradov on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:26PM (#47373025)

It turns out that the fires caused by above ground power lines are also quite expensive, at least in certain areas.

https://www.firevictimtrust.com/

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by pseudohadamard on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:26PM (#47373029)

That explains rural areas but not urban areas. We've got above-ground in rural areas but pretty much all urban stuff is underground. We get maybe one power cut a year, usually for scheduled maintenance work, and no problems with surges and whatnot.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by idiotsecant on Sunday March 15, 2026 @06:54PM (#47392877)

Yes, where the population density supports it the US has tons of underground.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by mcv on Saturday March 14, 2026 @09:35AM (#47376523)

Grandparent was talking about the DC metro area and Silicon Valley. We're not exactly talking about Montana here.

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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by ikr678 on Sunday March 15, 2026 @04:44AM (#47385458)

Expensive to install, less expensive to maintain.

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