we are stressing about this shortage. From a health care perspective, MRI machines are the No. 1 concern.”
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Helium has many uses:
cooling medium for the large hadron collider.
superconducting magnets in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.
to fill decorative balloons, weather balloons and airships.
used to detect leaks, like in car-conditioning systems.
helium-neon gas lasers are used to scan barcodes at checkouts.
From
Also used as a shielding gas for welding. Since it became scarcer, argon has been substituted for helium, but helium is probably the best for the purpose.
Hard to build warships if you can’t weld.