I just received a notice from our liquid helium supplier that
allocations have just been imposed. See excerpt below.
What are others hearing?
--Mike
-----------------------------
Michael Strain, PhD
Director, CAMCOR NMR Facility
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1253
mstrain_at_uoregon.edu
541-346-4605 office/lab
541-556-4077 mobile
http://nmr.uoregon.edu
LinkedIn.com/in/michael-strain-3a8476119
=================================================
"We regret to inform you that two unforseen events have occured that are
further impacting the helium supply chain.
"The first event involves the helium source in Qatar. During a 4-day
period in late February there was a complete interruption of all helium
production arising from problems in the process that provide crude helium
feedgas to the two helium plants there.
"Additionally, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced an
extraordinary adjustment to how the BLM allocates helium from the US
Helium Reserve to support government users of helium. Specifically, this
move by the BLM directs a much larger portion of the fixed volume of helim
that is extracted daily from the Reserve to NASA to support an aggressive
rocket testing and launch schedule. This diversion of helium to
government use comes at the expense of commercial users.
....."The action taken by BLM will further impact helium supply available
to commercial users so long as the preferential allocation of helium to
NASA or other government users persists...."
etc etc.
Received on Mon Mar 05 2018 - 08:43:46 MST