07-17-2013, 10:47 PM
Where I used to work, liquid Helium at $5 started to be an issue, so many of the groups looked into closed systems, where the vented gas was re-liquified. But then again, back in the eighties, when we went through a _lot_ of film, we set up a Silver recycling plant...
What worries some researchers more is the shortage of 3-He. It is difficult and expensive to purify it from natural, so we some of it from the Russians, who were making a little profit from their Tritium waste product . ($110 per liter, STP, 1999.)
Although commonly only thought of as a future source feed for Fusion plants, it actually has many interesting research uses, not the least of which is refrigeration.
One plan that died was to make a large particle detector, coincidentally cooled by Liquid 3-He. It was killed by the estimated cost of $20M for the coolant, and it turns out that there wasn't enough of the liquified gas available to fill it.
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/p...ypassSSO=1
Eustace
What worries some researchers more is the shortage of 3-He. It is difficult and expensive to purify it from natural, so we some of it from the Russians, who were making a little profit from their Tritium waste product . ($110 per liter, STP, 1999.)
Although commonly only thought of as a future source feed for Fusion plants, it actually has many interesting research uses, not the least of which is refrigeration.
One plan that died was to make a large particle detector, coincidentally cooled by Liquid 3-He. It was killed by the estimated cost of $20M for the coolant, and it turns out that there wasn't enough of the liquified gas available to fill it.
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/p...ypassSSO=1
Eustace