Sophia Hayes

So natural gas is mined in many, many places.

But there are only a few sites where it's rich enough in helium.

So when they pull out that natural gas, it's on the order of 1% of the gas that they're pulling out has helium in it.

So that gives you kind of an idea.

But when you ask, how much does the Earth have overall?

I mean, there are some estimates, but I think it would be just a complete guess in part because you're really asking how much is trapped underground versus how much

happens to be, you know, in a neighboring county where the rocks don't trap the helium and it just goes up into the atmosphere.

So I don't think there's a good answer to that question that scientists or geologists, for that matter, would be able to rigorously defend.

The problem here is that there are two types of helium users.

There's a sort of fixed amount that you need for certain types of instruments and applications.

And then there's a variable amount.

It's kind of like this.

In your own home, you need electricity that's on to keep your refrigerator and freezer cold.

And so if that electricity gets shut off, that would be bad news.

But there's also the variable amount of electricity that you use in your home, how many lights you turn on, whether or not you use it for some other application.

So helium is used for cooling experiments down or maybe to purge out a chamber to take all the reactive gases out and replace it with helium.

But maybe those are experiments that you could choose not to do for a period of time when there's a shortage.

But the fixed-use things are really where the risk is.

A number of us need this to sustain instruments, and the instrument can be irreparably damaged if we run out of helium.

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