On Thursday, the U.S. government sold the Federal Helium Reserve, a large underground reserve based in Amarillo, Texas, that supplies up to 30% of the nation's helium.
If the deal goes through, the buyer will be industrial gas company Messer Corp., which will likely be the highest bidder, with about 425 miles of pipeline spanning Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma and about 1 billion cubic feet of the only element found on Earth. will be charged. That's enough to power an MRI machine.
Regulatory and logistical issues at the facility could lead to temporary closure as the facility transitions from public to private ownership, and hospital supply chain experts say the sale will impact the future of health care. There are concerns that this could have a serious impact, especially on MRI.
To be sure, the closure of the federal helium storage does not mean an abrupt halt to MRIs across the country, said Soumi Saha, Premier's senior vice president of government affairs. The company contracts with helium suppliers on behalf of the Commonwealth's 4,400 hospitals. America. “But we are highlighting this shortage. From a medical perspective, MRI machines are the biggest concern.”
American patients undergo an estimated 40 million MRI scans each year to diagnose cancer, brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, and heart disease. Diagnostic imaging devices powered by superconducting magnets provide doctors with clear, high-resolution images of areas inside the body that cannot be seen with X-rays or CT scans. But without liquid helium, the coldest element on Earth, MRI machines wouldn't be able to keep the magnets hot enough to produce these images.
Saha said the sale of the government's stockpile of non-renewable elements could worsen existing supply shortages.
Rich Gottwald, CEO of the Compressed Gas Association, an industry group representing companies such as Messer that buys and sells helium, said many factors could cause a facility to close and for how long. said it could last up to three years. Customers include hospitals, semiconductor manufacturers, and NASA.
The facility spans three states, each with its own laws. He said the federal government doesn't have to adjust state-specific rules, but private buyers do. One problem is that the helium needs to be concentrated before it can be used, which requires a separate system. The enrichment system is not part of the Federal Reserve, but is privately owned by four private companies, including Messer. Unlike the pipeline or helium itself, it wasn't for sale.
“The new owner will either have to enter into some kind of lease agreement to use the enrichment unit or they will have to build their own unit to enrich helium,” Gottwald said. “There are a lot of issues that need to be resolved, and the fear is that we will have to shut down the system until they are resolved.”
In October, CGA and four other industry groups laid out what they considered the facility's most important issues in a letter to the White House asking for a delay in the sale. His two industry associations behind the letter, AdvaMed and Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance, represent his MRI manufacturers.
“Further restrictions on helium supplies would disrupt timely and critical patient care,” Scott Whittaker, CEO of AdvaMed, wrote in an email to NBC News. . “Advamed urges the White House to delay the sale and privatization of the federal helium stockpile until the outstanding issues identified by the Compressed Gas Association are resolved.”
The sale has been in the works for more than a decade. Congress first mandated this bidding through the Helium Management Act of 2013. Originally scheduled to take place in 2021, the auction was postponed to Thursday due to a series of delays (due in part to the same logistical and regulatory issues that threatened today's closure).
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior said in an emailed statement that the sale will not limit helium supplies.
“The sale of reserves to the private sector, as required by law by Congress, is not expected to materially change the availability of helium,” the spokesperson wrote.
Other helium sources
There is a finite amount of helium on Earth.The largest reserves are in huge underground pockets in Algeria, Qatar, Russia and parts of the United States.
The Texas stockpile is the largest source of helium in the United States, but it's not the only one. Gottwald said there are a number of small, privately owned facilities, some in Colorado and Wyoming.
The easiest and cheapest option is to source helium within the United States or from Canada. Transportation time is an important factor. If shipping exceeds 35-48 days, the liquid helium will evaporate.
The other two largest helium reserves are in Qatar and Russia.
“Suspending U.S. helium stockpiles would force us to increase our dependence on foreign resources, such as Qatar and Russia,” Saha said. “Given ongoing geopolitical concerns and tensions in these regions and transportation delays, there will be heightened concerns about potential shortages in the continental United States.”
Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, said the United States has been unable to tap into Russia's helium supplies because of trade tensions and the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea have forced Qatar to send shipments of liquefied natural gas, including helium, around the Cape of Good Hope, with routes delayed for at least 20 days. It will take several days.
helium in health and science
Helium was already in short supply before the government began selling it. Kornbluth said three out of five U.S. helium suppliers are currently prioritizing life-or-death uses such as MRI machines over less-essential uses of helium, such as keeping party balloons afloat. Helium is reportedly being distributed for this purpose.
For example, shortages are already hitting scientists hard across the University of California system, which includes 10 research campuses and six medical schools.
“Allocations from helium suppliers have been on and off for some time,” said Jeremy Meadows, the company's executive director of strategic sourcing. “There are priorities in allocation, medical first and research second.” This was difficult for scientists with labs that use magnetic imaging for medical research, he said.
“Our helium-dependent research is only growing,” he added. If the available supply decreases further, “we don't know how to position ourselves to get that supply,” he said.
Paul Williams, the University of California's chief procurement officer, lamented in a letter to the U.S. government last spring that helium costs have already risen more than 400 percent in five years.
Further reductions in supply “will expose the research and medical communities to greater risk,” he wrote.
For example, the University of California has a powerful helium-dependent magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner that doctors use to plan brain surgeries on children. Williams said his was the only two such scanner in the entire state.
“When helium runs out, recooling can take weeks, delaying surgeries or, in some cases, forcing surgeons to operate without a detailed brain map,” he said, adding that MEG scanners have barely been able to operate dozens of times. He added that the company had avoided a shutdown. Over the past 10 years.
MRI of the future
MRI manufacturers have responded to helium's uncertain future with unique solutions. Philips and Siemens Healthineers recently began selling an alternative to traditional MRI machines that hold 1,700 to 1,800 liters of liquid helium and require regular refilling. Some models require only 1 to 7 liters of helium and do not require refilling. Spokespeople from both companies touted these new models as cost-effective for hospitals, especially as helium prices continue to rise.
But MRI machines are long-term investments, and many hospitals expect their current MRI machines, which rely on helium, to last years, if not decades.
“It's not unheard of to use the same magnet for 20 or 30 years,” said Dr. Scott Rieder, chair of the University of Wisconsin Department of Radiology.
Prime Minister Saha said the uptake of low-helium MRI has been slow.
“There is a capital cost to removing old MRI equipment and installing new equipment, and manufacturers do not have the ability to replace all MRI equipment in 6,000 U.S.-based hospitals overnight,” she said. “That's going to take time. We can't remove every MRI machine in the country because that would impact patient care.”
Still, interest in these new models is growing due to uncertainty in helium supplies, Saha said. “We're seeing healthcare providers trying to get ahead of the curve by inquiring about MRI systems that use minimal or no helium,” she said.
The medical industry is concerned about what the sale of federal helium reserves will mean for meeting existing MRI demand, which also continues to grow, Reeder said.
“MRI plays an increasingly important role in the detection, treatment, monitoring and prognosis of so many diseases, and as a field we need to think carefully about how to keep our supply chain from becoming a crisis. ',' he said.
Experts stressed that such a crisis situation has not yet arrived. Once this sale is complete, patients across the United States will no longer suddenly face MRI cancellations or missed cancer diagnoses.
But the future of this important lighter-than-air element is certainly in flux, and the medical community is watching closely, Saha said.
“Our hope is that health care will be prioritized, but that is not guaranteed if there is a shortage,” she says.
For now, helium consumers have to be smart, Reeder suggested. “Using helium in party balloons is probably no longer a good idea,” he said.