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It's ironic that Earth is running out of the second most abundant element in the universe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elem...


Isn't helium expected to be a byproduct of commercial fusion?


Commercial fusion does not exist, and the amounts of helium would be irrelevant.


Indeed it doesn't, hence "expected".

The concept of extracting helium as a byproduct of a reaction with high energy output is akin to taking the lye from wood ash and processing it further as an electrolyte (potassium hydroxide) for NiFe batteries.

I suppose even the irrelevant amounts of helium resulting from this process would also be ruled out when seeking out new sources since fusion is still in the experimental phase. Bottleneck seems to be materials (superconducting/temperature?)





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