US designates helium as a critical material

	US designates helium as a critical material(apnews.com)
	214 points by rbanffy 17 hours ago \| 125 comments
	tl;dr: Summary not available
	HN Discussion: ↑Too little too late after squandering the national helium reserve for years ↓Designation is a market ploy since most extracted helium is still vented as waste ↑Helium should be reserved for industrial/scientific uses, not party balloons •US should partner with Canada for He-3 and He-4 supply chains •Provides background context on helium shortage and its industrial importance