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Helium in sentence

102 examples of Helium in a sentence

I only laughed once, was when one of Mike's friends, sucked in helium n began 2 speak in that squeaky voice.
I'm in the scene where someone supposedly puts helium in the basketballs and they float to the top of the Civic Arena.
In the fission reactions that nuclear power generation relies on today, heavy elements such as uranium break into smaller ones, while in nuclear fusion small elements such as hydrogen stick together and form heavier elements (helium).
Third, fusion also emits neutrons that will produce helium gas bubbles inside the wall material, which tends to explode.
For pressure-fed rockets, Big Physics, or even party balloons, there is no realistic alternative to helium.
Until recently, the world’s seemingly abundant supply of helium was extracted solely as a by-product of natural-gas production in just two dozen helium-rich fields.
But global helium production shortfalls have driven double-digit inflation of helium prices and fueled rising anxiety in the scientific community.
Now, prospectors in the United States – the world’s largest helium exporter – are exploring fields in search of helium exclusively.
Since the 1996 US Helium Privatization Act (HPA) – which required the government to sell off its helium reserves using a rigid price formula in order to repay the debt accrued from a large helium buy-up in the 1960’s – there have been three such shortfalls.
Given that the HPA calls for helium sales to cease once the debt is paid – that is, this October – the scientific, medical, and technology communities have become increasingly concerned about a massive helium shortage and ballooning costs.
This, together with the fact that helium underpins much US employment, may have contributed to the US Congress’s recent efforts to keep one-third of the world’s helium supply flowing, but at higher prices.
The move is timely, because the mandated disposal of such a large volume of helium from the US Federal Helium Reserve over the last 15 years has displaced many helium producers in the American Midwest and deferred projects elsewhere (see graph).
Indeed, by artificially constraining helium prices, the HPA weakened companies’ incentive to invest in separating helium from natural gas.
As a result, many thousands of tonnes of helium have simply been vented into the atmosphere at source or when the natural gas has been burned.
Ending this lamentable squandering of helium requires a fundamental shift in thinking in the natural-gas industry.
As helium is a by-product of its much larger energy counterpart, it is fair to say that helium that is not used will not be preserved.
Today, the upstream helium market is structurally weak.
Moreover, the rapid expansion in the US of shale gas, which contains no economically recoverable helium, has squeezed marginal conventional-gas supplies.
For example, Oklahoma’s Keyes natural-gas field – which relieved a major helium shortage just as the US government started purchasing the gas from private producers during the space race – now lies dormant.
And helium extraction is not economical without natural-gas production.
As it stands, natural-gas companies have little incentive to adapt their operations to enable helium extraction.
This reduces the helium concentration and makes extraction difficult.
Clearly, the problem is not insufficient helium, but the economic, legal, and physical constraints on helium resources.
In fact, Arizona alone has enough helium to supply the US for a decade.
Given that the CO2 is not yet being produced and will not be vented, the field’s helium remains inaccessible.
Despite these challenges, the industrial gas companies are gaining access to helium in low-grade gas sources.
Although some producers – including Exxon Mobil’s Shute Creek plant near La Barge, Wyoming (until 2013, home to the world’s largest helium refinery) – once vented waste CO2 into the atmosphere, they are now installing carbon-capture facilities to reduce or eliminate emissions.
Moreover, nitrogen – a gas that can be vented without consequences – always coexists with helium.
Coincidentally, the initial discovery of abundant helium in the US in 1903 occurred at a dud gas well in Dexter, Kansas, which contained a gas mixture comprising more than 70% nitrogen and 1.84% helium.
As helium prices rise, nitrogen-rich sources are becoming economical.
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