Now There's a Helium Shortage and It Affects More Than Balloons
Another consequence of the war in Iran.
Pressure valves on the filtration system inside the North American Helium Inc. purification plant in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photographer: Kayle Neis/Bloomberg Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts
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Ripple effects from the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continue to widen. Now there's yet another brewing shortage, this time in helium. While most people associate helium with balloons and funny voices, the element is used in a surprisingly wide variety of industrial settings, including semiconductor production, where its role in advanced lithography has been growing rapidly. But helium mining and exploration in North America has been practically non-existent for a variety of reasons. And while the US used to have a strategic helium reserve, the government started selling that down in the late 1990s. On this episode, we speak with Nicholas Snyder, the founder and CEO of North American Helium, which does helium mining in Canada. We discuss the properties of helium that make it so useful, as well as the difficulties of expanding global production and distribution.