78 comments on Goodbye Helium, Goodbye Brainscans
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78 comments on Goodbye Helium, Goodbye Brainscans
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
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The main problem is that xenon is no substitute for helium, and vice versa. They're both inert, but in totally different ways.
I was looking at this a few months ago and made these notes:
-- from which the relevant part for this discussion is that fission produces not only xenon-135 but also 136, 134, 132, 131, 130, and 128. These are all stable.
How shall the car gain nuclear cachet?
The number of atoms involved in nuclear reactions is actually pretty small, so the amount of product generated would be miniscle. A chunk of Uranium or Thorium
(or even Polnium 210) is a source of Helium, its just that you don't get very much.
Some high temperature superconductors work at Liguid Nitrogen temps, but generally for any superconductor the colder the better. Losing Helium would be a serious issue. I suspect the price will rise and that should price out the more wasteful applications, and increase recyling in other applications. Still it would be good to increase the market price in anticipation of future shortages.
Ironically Helium is the second most common substance in the universe at large, constituting something like 15-20% of all atoms. But collecting it from the atmosphere of Jupiter would be pretty darned expensive!
Xenon is a very interesting anaesthetic gas with a remarkable ability to protect the brain from hypoxia, it isn't used much because of the expense. Any increase in availability would be a welcome development.