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Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by kordless on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @04:31PM (#9735045)
The moon is chock full of it. Would be hysterical if we went back to the moon just because kid's balloons.
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by ChuckMcM on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @04:54PM (#9735231)
Nah, one MRI magnet uses more helium than 10,000 kids balloons, and you get to charge $5,000 every time you use it.
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by TeMPOraL on Thursday June 18, 2015 @07:19AM (#9737849)
Uses or wastes? I.e. is 10k-balloon-equivalent helium released or reused?
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by Kliment on Thursday June 18, 2015 @07:48AM (#9737957)
Reused unless you do a quench (emergency shutdown)
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by jackgavigan on Thursday June 18, 2015 @09:06AM (#9738246)
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by PhasmaFelis on Thursday June 18, 2015 @02:14AM (#9737077)
Apparently helium balloons use only about 8% of the annual consumption of helium, and that's just about the highest-margin use there is--hospitals effectively pay less for their helium because it's subsidized by kiddie balloons.
Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by Jweb_Guru on Thursday June 18, 2015 @04:18AM (#9737357)
It is an entirely fanciful notion that the cost of helium would ever be high enough that going to the moon to retrieve it would be economically viable.