Physicist: talk about the imminent “exhaustion” of helium is not quite correctly – RIA Novosti

17:12 28.06.2016

(updated: 17:15 28.06.2016 )

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MOSCOW, June 28 – RIA Novosti . The story about the opening of large helium deposits in Tanzania and the related idea of ​​an almost instantaneous depletion of its reserves is incorrect, since helium is constantly there in the bowels of the planet as a result of the decay of radioactive elements, according to the Czech physicist Lubos Motl.

“Opening these helium reserves once again caused a media storm of debate and panic associated with the fact that this gas gradually escapes from the atmosphere into space. once again, any ideas enter the helium market regulation to prevent a rise in prices. I do not agree with this, as we extract helium from the atmosphere is not “- he explains.

As explained Motl, the Earth’s atmosphere contains very little helium – about 0.00052%, and each planet is losing about four tons of the noble gas, whose atoms escape into space. For this reason, helium is extracted not from the air, other gases, and of the earth

The main source of helium are deposits of conventional natural gas -. In which its atoms are the result of the disintegration of unstable nuclei of uranium and other “heavy “radioisotopes. The proportion of helium in natural gas is much higher – about 7%, which makes it easy and cheap enough to separate it from the hydrocarbons, ammonia and other gas components.

According to Motl, if you take the current proven reserves of natural gas and calculate the mass of the helium which it contains in itself, we can say that the world of these volumes will be enough for a few hundred years, during which formed in the bowels of the planet still some gas. For this reason, he believes that the talks on the establishment of strict control over the circulation of helium and prohibitions on its use to inflate the balloons are ungrounded.

Yesterday, scientists from the UK and Norway informed the meeting Geochemical Society of America, that they were able find huge deposits of helium in the volcanic rocks of the Rift valley in Tanzania, which is approximately two times higher than the current reserves of helium in the United States, the largest holder of reserves of gas in the world. Volcanic activity in the region, as shown by scientists, has led to the formation of multiple subterranean “pockets” of helium, whose total volume is enough to fill 600,000 Olympic swimming pools with liquid helium and 1.2 million scanners.