“A massive helium reservoir discovered in Minnesota earlier this year could alleviate critical shortages of the gas across several industries in the U.S., experts say.

On Aug. 21, the resource exploration company Pulsar Helium announced the results of an independent evaluation of its helium drilling site near Babbitt — and the data bode well for commercial helium production, according to a statement.

The evaluation estimated the volume of helium recoverable from a single well that taps into 13% of the overall land that Pulsar Helium owns in Minnesota. The results showed this one well contains 22.9 million cubic feet (649,000 cubic meters) of helium, which is equivalent to roughly 1% of U.S. helium production in 2023 and 0.4% of total global production in 2023…

Extrapolating the new data to estimate the amount of helium beneath Pulsar’s overall land position comes with large uncertainties, but 176 million cubic feet (5 million cubic meters) — the number one gets by multiplying 22.9 million cubic feet by 7.7 to cover 100% of the land position — ‘may not be too far off’ the actual volume of helium in the reservoir, Gluyas said.

Currently, the U.S. produces roughly 2.1 billion cubic feet (60 million cubic meters) of helium, so Pulsar’s site in Minnesota could one day produce an additional 8.3% for the domestic supply.”

From Live Science.

“Toroidal tanks have a bunch of potential advantages over conventional spherical fuel tanks. For example, you can fit nearly 40% more volume within a toroidal tank than if you were using multiple spherical tanks within the same space. And perhaps most interestingly, you can shove stuff (like the back of an engine) through the middle of a toroidal tank, which could lead to some substantial efficiency gains if the tanks could also handle structural loads.

Because of their relatively complex shape, toroidal tanks are much more difficult to make than spherical tanks. Even though these tanks can perform better, NASA simply doesn’t have the expertise to manufacture them anymore, since each one has to be hand-built by highly skilled humans. But a company called Machina Labs thinks that they can do this with robots instead. And their vision is to completely change how we make things out of metal.”

From IEEE Spectrum.

“Meta, the company that owns Facebook, announced an agreement with a start-up called Sage Geosystems to develop up to 150 megawatts of an advanced type of geothermal energy that would help power the tech giant’s expanding array of data centers. That is roughly enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.

Sage will use fracking techniques similar to those that have helped extract vast amounts of oil and gas from shale rock. But rather than drill for fossil fuels, Sage plans to create fractures thousands of feet beneath the surface and pump water into them. The heat and pressure underground should heat the water to the point where it can be used to generate electricity in a turbine, all without the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming…

Google has partnered with Fervo Energy, a prominent geothermal start-up, to build a 5-megawatt pilot plant in Nevada that has already begun supplying power to the grid. The two companies recently reached a deal to supply much more geothermal power in the years ahead to Google’s data centers.”

From New York Times.

“The Swiss government wants to cancel a ban on building new nuclear plants that’s been in place since 2018.

Switzerland currently has four aging nuclear plants, and also relies heavily on renewable sources for its energy supply. At a meeting on Wednesday, the government announced it will propose the changes to current legislation by the end of the year, with parliament set to discuss them in 2025 before the issue is likely put to a referendum.”

From Bloomberg.