I hope no one needs an MRI this year.

The world's largest producer of liquified helium is in Qatar and is shut off. We just got a notice that our supply for the year will be at least cut in half.

No one could have predicted this (unless they thought about it).

March 23, 2026 - 20:34 UTC

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So much for my plans to talk in a high pitched voice. War never changes.
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Apparently there is a LOT of liquid helium used in SpaceX rockets.
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If I remember correctly, since it stays a gas down to ultra-low temperatures it's used to push the cryogenic fuel and liquid oxygen out to the nozzles.
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info.atlantisworldwide.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-zero-boil-off-mri-scanners

don't know how widespread this option exists.
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It's an option, and might become a requirement long term, but I'm pretty sure you couldn't retrofit it onto existing MRI machine. You'd have to purchase a new one that is even more expensive than one you had. Most hospitals won't be able to afford that in the short term.
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Any hospital that is running an MRI that is not closed-cycle cooled or does not have a helium recovery and reliquefaction system has just decided to take cash and set it on fire. Helium is non-renewable and has been expensive for 20 years. It's much more cost effective to recycle it.
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Trump is reason enough to declare the entire GOP a terrorist organization and treat it as such.
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Not this specifically, but the day he was elected, I knew the world would be plunged into catastrophe. And we likely haven't seen the worst yet. I told my friends and family, some of whom were skeptical at the time.
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Let's hope we're wrong.
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Same. I told anyone that would listen that electing trump would close any path to timely meaningful action on climate change and would therefore have a big risk of ending human civilization as we know it, much faster than most assume. Oh well. Who cares about a livable future for our kids, right? 🤷
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from one of the people who thinks about these things
bsky.app/profile/devonianstone.bsky.social/post/3mh5thdp2pc27
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I understand that there are still some ancient MRI machines around that aren't closed-cycle systems, but you could buy a helium reliquefier (they're actually manufactured in America!) and recover and reliquefy the helium. That should pay for itself in reduced helium bills in a year!
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Shit.
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They will need to pick and choose who gets them, and people will end up dying because of lack of access. The wealthy will have access, of course.
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It’s probably all a grift. They’ll watch as hospitals scramble to claim by to the top of the heap to get what scraps they throw.

Quid pro quo all the way down.
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That's awful news, but everyone, please note that there is some misleading info about helium making the rounds on BlueSky.

Here are the facts:

bsky.app/profile/torrleonard.bsky.social/post/3mhmbyaho3c2u
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And MAGA can’t figure out why past presidents who surrounded themselves with experts didn’t attack Iran.
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I still can't believe Dubya released the US strategic helium reserves to make birthday balloons cheaper. That shit is non renewable!
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It's a good thing that the USA spent a hundred years collecting a billion cubic meters of helium gas at the National Strategic Helium Reserve in Texas...

Wait, I'm being handed a note...

Oh no.
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On the upside, helium production will finally be diversified across the globe now. Tanzania should help but it still isn't enough so this should push it wider.
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Maybe we need to stop wasting helium in balloons and get rid of that extra single use garbage. No one refills balloons once the helium is gone. We can do birthdays and occasions without them.
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All the physicists and radiologists and tech people have been crabbing about the helium for like 30 years. Who could possibly have foreseen? Fuggit, nevermind.
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For the record the whole "helium shortage" thing was not actually a real shortage. The helium reserve drove down prices so people stopped extracting helium on purpose, it only comes from natural gas. As NG use drops and the reserve got used up prices increased until production equalized.
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I couldn't believe they didn't outlaw helium balloons after that came out.
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As someone who has had maybe 7 MRIs in the last two years (including a Magnetic Resonance Neurography just this past Friday) this is terrifying. And the fact that we are still allowing helium balloons to be a thing is just insane.
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7? Wow! I had one last month and I'm not sure I could do a 2nd.

Didn't expect a problem - but spent the whole time deep breathing, trying to stay calm. Really felt the closeness.

On the other side, my husband has had 3 or 4, and he falls asleep. 🤷

I hope they're finding things that can help you.
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Doing my part for conserve helium by not being able to get an MRI since 27 january 2004.
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Well, sadly, the USG didn't really care that much about healthcare before Trump. Trump's definitely not going to care.

It's just so crazy that Congressional Republicans care so little about human life or the Constitution. They could impeach Trump but they are happy to let America(ns) burn.
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Fuck Qatar. 🤔
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Idiot - they're under attack by Iran. Take just one second to search for news: "Iran attacks wipe out 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity for up to five years..." It's easy, try it.
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This that I posted earlier has the link to NBCNews story
bsky.app/profile/martyd409.bsky.social/post/3mhsol4fgs222
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Auctioning off our health care. Nice😕
but this process began in 2021, when Biden was president?!?
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I had no idea helium could even be a liquid or was needed for MRI! 😲
So many things screwed up by one madman and his genocidal buddy.
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And helium’s a limited resource and once it’s gone, we won’t have any left. We can’t make it, so the fact we use it for party balloons is completely bonkers to me.
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helium turns liquid at extremely cold temperatures (around 4K at room pressure, which is around -450°F/-270°C)
it is specifically used to cool strong magnets, as these magnets need to be superconducting amd we don’t know how to do that at higher temperatures (yet).
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The war started by the USA, which iirc around a decade ago, decided to sell off its strategic reserves of helium.
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Wasn't that because there was some dumbass legislation from the 80s that dictated that it be sold off?? i dont remember the details, I just remember it was dumb
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Hope no one needs to make a funny voice at a birthday party
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I think you'll wanna turn it back into a gas first lol, I don't think drinking it is recommended! 😂❤️
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It's too bad we didn't have a recent global pandemic where we could have learned lessons on creating redundancies for essential products.
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Some MRI manufacturers do have domestic sources. Don't know how many manufacturers though.
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@statnews.com @propublica.org
@erictopol.bsky.social
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