Helium is used in applications ranging from medical devices such as MRIs to surveillance balloons for national security. In the Helium Privatization Act of 1996, Congress directed the government to sell essentially all of the U.S. helium reserves by 2015 to compensate the government for its investment in the helium and its storage.
SELLING THE NATION'S HELIUM RESERVE, a new report from the National Research Council, assesses whether selling off the reserve has had any adverse effects on U.S. scientific, technical, biomedical, and national security users of helium. The report will be released at 11 a.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 22.
Source: National Academy of Sciences