The National Research Council’s (NRC) recent report for the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) titled “Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve,” produced important findings, conclusions, and recommendations that relate to the worldwide and US helium markets.
This report, which followed a similar study done in 2000, reflects the findings of the Committee on Understanding the Impact of Selling the Helium Reserve, which was appointed by the NRC in 2008.
The actions taken by the BLM in response to the NRC findings are likely to significantly impact the primary and secondary supply chains of both US and worldwide helium markets. In this article, CryoGas International summarizes the findings of this important report that are of most interest to our audience. Please note: text in quotes is taken directly from “Selling the Nation’s Helium Reserve.” Readers can obtain the entire report from The National Academies Press, www.nap.edu.
The Committee on Understanding (committee) was charged with determining “whether selling off the US helium reserve in the manner prescribed by law [the original Act of 1960, as amended by the Helium Privatization Act of 1996] has had any adverse effect on US scientific, technical, biomedical, and National security users of helium.” (The detailed charge for this study is included in Appendix A of the report.) These are all small-scale users of helium, not the largescale commercial customers. “
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