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foreigner

As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!

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That shortage is mostly a myth: https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-in...

So what happens after 117 years?

If we get compact working fusion reactors, what probably happens is we import as much helium as we want from Jupiter.

All fusion produces helium, though. I don't think anyone is looking into fusing heavier atoms.

If you look at the nuclear binding energy curve (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/... ) you'll see a nice bump there for He4. So there's no gain in fusing heavier stuff.

Not unless you could somehow bang three of them together at once to get to C-12. That seems unlikely with current technology. We can't even get C-N-O cycle fusion in the dinky little star we live next to.

So that's at least 20 years away from being 20 years away from being 20 years away. And you could just make more alpha particles, anyway. It's not like the universe is short on hydrogen.

It's a bit weird to say we're running out of He, not unless we're running out of CH4. Which, theoretically we are.

But practically, with CH4, our modern concern is not running out of it, but the associated GHG emissions of producing and burning it.

So we won't run out of He, so much as stop producing it.

It might be less confusing to refer to 'natural gas' in this context, rather than CH4.

'Natural gas' and not 'cow burps'?

Not cow burps. Cow burps do not contain helium gas. Helium is formed as a product of natural radioactive decay. It tends to get trapped within the earth in the same ways that natural gas does. Thus, helium is often present as an impurity in natural gas. This is what the previous commentator was referring to, but of course, CH4 is not actually a very good source of helium.

CH4, aka Methane, is one Carbon atom and four Hydrogen atoms. There is no Helium in Methane, just Hydrogen.

Helium is a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Radon too.

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