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Stop squandering helium | Nature
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Stop squandering helium

Nature volume 485, pages 573–575 (2012)Cite this article

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Establish a global agency to build a sustainable market for this precious commodity, say William J. Nuttall, Richard H. Clarke and Bartek A. Glowacki.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. William J. Nuttall is a senior lecturer in technology policy at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1AG, UK.,

    William J. Nuttall

  2. Richard H. Clarke is a cryogenics and helium specialist at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, UK.,

    Richard H. Clarke

  3. Bartek A. Glowacki is a reader in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK. They are the editors of The Future of Helium as a Natural Resource (Routledge, 2012).,

    Bartek A. Glowacki

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  1. William J. Nuttall
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  2. Richard H. Clarke
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  3. Bartek A. Glowacki
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Correspondence to William J. Nuttall.

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Nuttall, W., Clarke, R. & Glowacki, B. Stop squandering helium. Nature 485, 573–575 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485573a

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  1. Peter Cary

    (On behalf of WJ Nuttall): In a recent Comment entitled Stop Squandering Helium (31 May 2012) we propose an International Helium Agency (IHA) akin to the International Energy Agency. The IEA is an intergovernmental organisation established under the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD is based on a Convention between governments signed in 1960. The IEA maintains an expert secretariat in Paris and member states are required to maintain strategic petroleum reserves among which the US has the largest. IEA members operate their petroleum reserves autonomously, but with coordinated action in emergencies. We proposed our International Helium Agency concept as Editors of a recent book, the Future of Helium as a Natural Resource (Routledge, 2012).

    We are not the first to have called for some level of internationalisation of helium, such calls go back intermittently over several decades and various models have been suggested.

    In the recent book Ralph Scurlock and the late Art Francis propose another way forward &#8211 the creation of an International Helium Council involving both national and institutional interests and a World Helium Bank to ?purchase all surplus helium not immediately sold after extraction? <sup class="footnote">1</sup>. Shares in the World Helium Bank could be sold to (or bought from) companies or countries.

    In making our proposal we do not presume the IHA to be the only way ahead, but we add our voices to calls that new international arrangements for helium should now be established.

    WJ Nuttall, RH Clarke and BA Glowacki

    <sup class="footnote">1</sup> Scurlock, R. and Francis, A, in The Future of Helium as a Natural Resource, pp. 296-306 (Routledge, 2012)

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