Hellium’s Future Up

In The Air
A In recent years we have all been exposed to dire
media reports concerning the impending demise
of global coal and oil reserves, but the depletion
of another key non-renewable resource continues
without receiving much press at all. Helium – an
inert, odourless, monatomic element known to lay
people as the substance that makes balloons float
and voices squeak when inhaled – could be gone
from this planet within a generation.
B Helium itself is not rare; there is actually a
plentiful supply of it in the cosmos. In fact, 24 per
cent of our galaxy’s elemental mass consists of helium, which makes it the second most abundant
element in our universe. Because of its lightness, however, most helium vanished from our own planet
many years ago. Consequently, only a miniscule proportion – 0.00052%, to be exact – remains in earth’s
atmosphere. Helium is the by-product of millennia of radioactive decay from the elements thorium and
uranium. The helium is mostly trapped in subterranean natural gas bunkers and commercially extracted
through a method known as fractional distillation.
C The loss of helium on Earth would affect society greatly. Defying the perception of it as a novelty
substance for parties and gimmicks, the element actually has many vital applications in society. Probably
the most well known commercial usage is in airships and blimps (non-flammable helium replaced
hydrogen as the lifting gas du jour after the Hindenburg catastrophe in 1932, during which an airship
burst into flames and crashed to the ground killing some passengers and crew). But helium is also
instrumental in deep-sea diving, where it is blended with nitrogen to mitigate the dangers of inhaling
ordinary air under high pressure; as a cleaning agent for rocket engines; and, in its most prevalent use, as
a coolant for superconducting magnets in hospital MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners.
D The possibility of losing helium forever poses the threat of a real crisis because its unique qualities are
extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to duplicate (certainly, no biosynthetic ersatz product is close to
approaching the point of feasibility for helium, even as similar developments continue apace for oil and
coal). Helium is even cheerfully derided as a “loner” element since it does not adhere to other molecules
like its cousin, hydrogen. According to Dr. Lee Sobotka, helium is the “most noble of gases, meaning it’s
very stable and non-reactive for the most part … it has a closed electronic configuration, a very tightly
bound atom. It is this coveting of its own electrons that prevents combination with other elements’.
Another important attribute is helium’s unique boiling point, which is lower than that for any other
element. The worsening global shortage could render millions of dollars of high-value, life-saving
equipment totally useless. The dwindling supplies have already resulted in the postponement of
research and development projects in physics laboratories and manufacturing plants around the world.
There is an enormous supply and demand imbalance partly brought about by the expansion of high-tech
manufacturing in Asia.

E The source of the problem is the Helium Privatisation Act (HPA), an American law passed in 1996 that
requires the U.S. National Helium Reserve to liquidate its helium assets by 2015 regardless of the market
price. Although intended to settle the original cost of the reserve by a U.S. Congress ignorant of its
ramifications, the result of this fire sale is that global helium prices are so artificially deflated that few
can be bothered recycling the substance or using it judiciously. Deflated values also mean that natural
gas extractors see no reason to capture helium. Much is lost in the process of extraction. As Sobotka
notes: "The government had the good vision to store helium, and the question now is: Will the
corporations have the vision to capture it when extracting natural gas, and consumers the wisdom to
recycle? This takes long-term vision because present market forces are not sufficient to compel
prudent practice”. For Nobel-prize laureate Robert Richardson, the U.S. government must be prevailed
upon to repeal its privatisation policy as the country supplies over 80 per cent of global helium, mostly
from the National Helium Reserve. For Richardson, a twenty- to fifty-fold increase in prices would
provide incentives to recycle.
F A number of steps need to be taken in order to avert a costly predicament in the coming decades.
Firstly, all existing supplies of helium ought to be conserved and released only by permit, with medical
uses receiving precedence over other commercial or recreational demands. Secondly, conservation
should be obligatory and enforced by a regulatory agency. At the moment some users, such as hospitals,
tend to recycle diligently while others, such as NASA, squander massive amounts of helium. Lastly,
research into alternatives to helium must begin in earnest.

Questions 27–31

Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A–F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.

27 A use for helium which makes an activity safer

28 The possibility of creating an alternative to helium

29 A term which describes the process of how helium is taken out of the ground

30 A reason why users of helium do not make efforts to conserve it

31 A contrast between helium’s chemical properties and how non-scientists think about it

Questions 36–40

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 36–40 on your answer sheet.

Sobotka argues that big business and users of helium need to help look after helium stocks because 36
……………….. will not be encouraged through buying and selling alone. Richardson believes that the 37
……………….. needs to be withdrawn, as the U.S. provides most of the world’s helium. He argues that
higher costs would mean people have 38 ……………….. to use the resource many times over. People
should need a 39 ……………….. to access helium that we still have. Furthermore, a 40 ……………….. should
ensure that helium is used carefully.