You’d think it couldn’t happen, but America is running out of helium.

It’s the second most abundant element, after hydrogen. Still, it’s only available naturally, usually as a by-product of natural gas production. The war in Ukraine, the ongoing assaults by Iran on the Gulf states, and China’s decision to crack down on exports have cut the world’s supply by almost half.

If that only meant fewer blimps and balloons, America could ride it out. Most people don’t know it’s also essential to semiconductor manufacturing, the operation of medical resonance imaging devices, missile defense, and computer-guided smart weapons. We can’t do without it.

If it were rubber, oil, or natural gas, we could work around the shortage using a synthetic alternative. That’s how America dealt with supply chain issues in World War II. We invented alternatives to what we couldn’t get. But helium is only found in nature. There is no synthetic alternative and probably never will be, making it imperative to our national and economic security to have a way to keep an appreciable quantity in reserve in case the supply chain is disrupted.

From 1925 to just recently, we did. The management of the National Helium Reserve was privatized under Bill Clinton, and the inventory was eventually sold off by Joe Biden to a German company with strong ties to China. What we have now is mainly what we can get on the open........

© Yuma Sun