The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried.
The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried.
MRI machines need thousands of liters of liquid helium to function. Health care workers say they can’t afford any disruptions to the helium supply chain.
...and cue a 4,000% markup on what an MRI costs.
Don't worry though, I'm sure the price will go back down once the artificial shortage that generated it is addressed (chuckle)
On the plus side, we're going to see a lot more funding for superconductor research
Say it with me everybody: FUCK THIS SHITHOLE COUNTRY AND SELLING OFF ALL OUR PUBLIC RESOURCES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
Who bought it?
A fucking German company.
Standing with ya here in Canada, we keep doing the same. Bill Gates get wild profits from Canada National Rails because our brilliant politicians sold it in 95
HIGHEST BIDDER
And all that helium will help them get even higher!
the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.
I didn't know that elements had a defined temperature. Bang up reporting there, NBC.
Helium doesn't freeze because quantum mechanics. gestures furious
That means liquid helium can cool stuff to temperatures where nitrogen would be solid. This is used on the superconducting magnets in MRIs.They're not here to teach you, they're here to sell clicks
Well, they're not really wrong, there's are only two elements that make any sense to use here, helium and hydrogen.
The thing is, the job they want these elements for is as a coolant. The best state of matter for a coolant is definitely liquid, a liquid flows much better and makes better contact for thermal transfer than a solid, and it's much more dense than a gas (so it can pull more heat away).
But, at these very low temperatures, the only elements that won't freeze into a solid are helium and hydrogen. That said, hydrogen would make an even more efficient coolant than helium, so they're wrong that helium is the only elements that works. Hydrogen is pretty impractical though, it's hard to contain, it reacts with everything, it's more expensive.
For years there's been reports about how unnecessarily cheap helium is. For instance, helium balloons should be very expensive.
If the companies buying this up sell it for what it's value is, we could be looking at $100 helium balloons.
MRIs could also get more expensiveWouldn't that just mean no more balloons?
Does anyone actually need helium balloons? They're just single use plastic garbage.
the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.
[...]
liquid helium, the Earth’s coldest element,
What the fuck? The author clearly failed middle school science class. How did this article get past editorial review?
What is going to be very interesting about this is how the massive helium reserve discovered in Tanzania a few years ago is going to come into play here.
https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/2016/06/huge-helium-discovery-a-life-saving-find/
The amount of helium is not the only reason why this will be a huge international to-do:
https://dailynews.co.tz/why-russia-relations-vital-for-tanzania-economic-growth/