Helium Shortage (broadcast Friday, October 12th, 2007)

BLM's Crude Helium Enrichment Facility near Amarillo, Texas. The facility provides crude helium to refiners that supply about about 40 percent of U.S. helium production. Bureau of Land Management

In this segment, we'll get the latest on the global helium shortage. In 2006, approximately 170 million cubic meters of helium were extracted from natural gas or withdrawn from helium reserves worldwide. That gas was used for everything from cooling the superconducting magnets inside MRI machines to inflating party balloons. But a worldwide shortage of helium has prices on the rise in every market that uses helium. Some party goods stores are even limiting sales of balloons due to the shortage. Though it's the second most abundant element in the universe, helium is hard to come by on Earth. Purified helium is mostly extracted from natural gas -- it makes up about 7 percent of natural gas extracted from the ground. Only a few plants worldwide perform the fractional distillation processes needed to separate the helium from other gases and purify it, but worldwide demand continues to grow. Several helium production plants are currently shut down for maintenance. Equipment failures and bad weather have hampered others. In the US, a long-held 'strategic reserve' of helium is being eliminated, with all but 2,900 tons of the gas slated to be sold by 2015. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.