Independent: The world’s reserves of helium may be completely depleted in 25â30 years, according to Nobel laureate Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Helium, a nonrenewable resource that is extracted from rock, is being sold off too cheaply by the US, where the largest reserves are located. Helium is critical for cooling the machinery in wind tunnels, nuclear reactors, and IR and sub-millimeter detectors, such as those shown here from the Planck observatory. One of the biggest uses of helium is by NASA, which uses it to clean rocket fuel tanks. If a way to recycle the gas is not found soon, Richardson says, it will be “lost to the Earth forever.”
