zoraniko
1030
264
1
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/helium-production-by-country
Mar 24, 2026 1:55 AM
zoraniko
1030
264
1
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/helium-production-by-country
vikingladywizard
Good thing I don’t have health insurance anyway so Big MRI can suck it
Craizie
Am i missing something, or does the map show US is largest. Qatar isnt even colored in on the map.
tinyfootprints
I can't even see Qatar on that map. And I do know where to look.
Banjosquirrel
But we can just make more...
OliWarner
The US imports 8.6M m³, a third of that from Qatar, but most from Canada, and it produces 10 times its import domestically. The cost will soar, but the US suppliers will make bank from a resource like this becoming constrained. All the dickheads in the futures markets too. Fuck this timeline.
Decoyape11
My friend is confused. This map doesn’t highlight Qatar as a major producer. Just the U.S.A. For some reason. Is he illiterate?
ChrisTravel
Healthcare professionals have been screaming for years to stop using helium for hobbies (like filling birthday balloons), since it’s a finite resource and absolutely essential for radiology (amongst other applications)
Hexidimentional
Canada's helium production is a byproduct of our oil industry and nuclear plants, its not consistent
TickTockDeadMan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmKEBW1OXzE
ontarioOT
Smooth move, president dipshit.
pachyderm
He really is on top of his game isn’t he ?/s
BrickaBrackaFireCracker
There's so much else to choose from, this one reads terribly. It shows the US as the number one source that produces more than the 3rd-5th sources combined. Nobody is going to scroll-skim this and think it matters.
FrozenToMyself
Who has time for an MRI when the world is burning from climate change and war.
lurkerthatoccationallywantstocomment
Gotta be in shape for the post apocalyptic future. I'm trying to get my knee surgery before I can't
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
There are so many down stream effects of attacking Iran that were considered when past admins didn't do it. tRump decided to ignore 'em all
lonelyrangerofthedreams
This shows me just that some American MOFO is going to make more money because of the war, again.
Hatlled
I'll need one.
Someone want to inform me WHAT THE HELL I WANT TO LIVE FOR, AT ALL. Go on. Enlighten me.
ProfessorVanDiggenSagg
Kitties & Titties?
IhopeyougetstageIIIcoloncancer
Can I just say that measuring a compressible gas in volume instead of moles or mass or some absolute quantity of discrete atoms is an insane way to do it?
oldguyexlurker
How about top-load washing machine capacities? Can we use those?
IhopeyougetstageIIIcoloncancer
Only if it's the LG ones that play the sea shanty when it's done a load. Otherwise, no.
oldguyexlurker
And I took the Cologuard thing, so... sorry.
Bystandr
Canada could produce quite a bit but we just arent collecting it. Most of Canadas natural gas, and helium along with it, is burnt off and exhausted to the atmosphere at the wellhead, sadly.
lurkerthatoccationallywantstocomment
It always bothered me that they were not forced to produce LNG as a biproduct. I'm sure in the US it's worse
androgenoide
That new deposit they found in Minnesota last year is on hold for some reason isn't it?
jtxyz
Helium's not in the Bible so Trump canceled all the mining contracts.
jtxyz
Okay, I'm kidding, but admit it - you weren't quite sure I was.
androgenoide
Trump himself is probably not a believer but a lot of his backers are madmen whose ideas are crazier than that.
DeadeicPrints
TIL that helium is needed for an MRI. Interesting.
jakedafish
We need helium for a few critical technological things… and people keep using it for stupid shit like balloons.
HandoB4Javert
Most is wasted in party balloons
L4dead2
“You shut your mouth” -in my helium voice
Salmivalli
Party balloon helium is not pure enough. They actually recycle MRI helium to party balloon industry
OhIfIMust
That needed to stop years ago.
nomikos
They should really just use hydrogen for that, which allows for even more spectacular tricks than just "floating around"
IMakeLotsOfReferencesAndRemakes
I still think aerogel and vacuum for kids bday parties. Lighter than air, a lot harder to pop, and can come in all kinds of fun shapes. And they can "pop" at which point air will get it and make it heavy enough to fall. At least that is what theory tells me I have not put this into practice.
HandoB4Javert
DocAqua
Liquid helium is colder than liquid nitrogen. It's needed to keep some MRI components cold enough to achieve superconductivity. Most new MRIs are closed loop "dry" systems that recondense He internally, but older "wet" systems remain much more common, and require regular liquid He top-offs. Helium is common in the universe, but relatively rare and difficult to produce on earth. Most production is from distillation of natural gas (vastly more effective than attempting to collect from air).
Cthulhuonabike
He can also be produced by radioactive beta decay, but it takes ages
ifyoutakemeseriouslythatsonyou
Isn't the helium also the reason why MRIs basically run 24/7 and are extremely expensive to shut down and start up again? I seem to remember something along those lines. That's why inpatients sometimes get their MRI scheduled in the middle of the night.
BearPerson
Shouldn't have much to do with scheduling MRI in the middle of the night, that just sounds like "we don't have enough machines so we need creative scheduling".
However, they do need to be _powered_ 24/7 to keep the cooling loops going, because without them there goes your liquid helium. So having to fully power down an MRI is indeed an expensive process.
ifyoutakemeseriouslythatsonyou
They sure don't have enough machines. Getting appointments for non emergency MRIs can take months. That they do it only to inpatients in hospitals is likely more due to the fact that there's personell available at at night..
DocAqua
That can be part of it, yeah. Part of an older "wet" MRI getting shut down completely is shutting down the healing cooling/containment. This can lead to losing the helium (if controlled shutdown) or a "quench" if rapid/uncontrolled. Either way involves having to refill hundreds of liters of liquid He (very expensive), but am quench can actually damage/destroy the MRI, not to mention potential asphyxiation for anyone nearby if all the helium rapidly boils off at once.
ArchMagos
I may suffocate, but I'd die laughing at the funny voice all that helium would make
dudeinjapan
The emergency quench required very specific design of the exhaust piping. Sizes, lengths, maximum number of turns were very tightly controlled. Had to do a lot of double and triple checking the drawings when I was a CAD guy for an architect specializing in medical facilities.
DocAqua
Absolutely. Risk mitigation is engineered in as much as possible, and helium is much much lighter than the majority nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere at ground level. That being said, an emergency quench can be akin to putting liquid nitrogen in a sealed bottle, but on a much grander scale. Even if the venting design is sufficient to prevent explosion, the vast volume expansion of a large quantity of Helium boiling off can displace most of the nearby atmosphere long enough to be dangerous.
DeadeicPrints
Thats crazy. Honestly I didnt know helium was even cold, let alone colder than liquid nitrogen. Yes im stupid I know lol. Thanks for educating me.
DocAqua
Ignorant is not the same thing as stupid. Ignorance can be fixed, whereas stupid often wears a red hat. Always try to keep learning, and hopefully you won't be either of them. : )
algoritham
Its not 'cold' by itself, but it stays liquid at the temperatures that MRI magnets need. Nitrogen would freeze solid and lock the equipment up.
DocAqua
MRIs have no large moving parts inside (unlike CT scanners), it's all solid state electronics with the magnet itself immersed in hundreds of liters of liquid helium. But you are correct that nitrogen would be solid (at ~1.0 ATM) if cooled until it was the same temperature as liquid helium. Nitrogen is a liquid from -196 to -210 Celcius (63-77 Kelvin), and solid below that. Helium isn't even a liquid until below -269 Celcius (~2-4 degrees Kelvin), and either solid or a superfluid below that.