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Liquid helium (He-4)

The only practical way to reach the temperatures superconducting magnets and some chip tools need. It cannot be manufactured.

The bottleneck itself →

  1. Research51 (Computed: Items per stage = papers, preprints and grants collected for the bottleneck whose relevance score is 2 or more, placed on a stage by the rule in lib/science.ts; judgements are counted separately.)+1 (Computed: Items first collected in the last 7 days whose publication or award date is within the last 30 days.) new
  2. Lab9 (Computed: Items per stage = papers, preprints and grants collected for the bottleneck whose relevance score is 2 or more, placed on a stage by the rule in lib/science.ts; judgements are counted separately.)
  3. Pilot2 (Computed: Items per stage = papers, preprints and grants collected for the bottleneck whose relevance score is 2 or more, placed on a stage by the rule in lib/science.ts; judgements are counted separately.)
  4. Early0 (Computed: Items per stage = papers, preprints and grants collected for the bottleneck whose relevance score is 2 or more, placed on a stage by the rule in lib/science.ts; judgements are counted separately.)
  5. Scale0 (Computed: Items per stage = papers, preprints and grants collected for the bottleneck whose relevance score is 2 or more, placed on a stage by the rule in lib/science.ts; judgements are counted separately.)

judged, with a citation claimed, no citationNumber: papers, preprints and grants the feeds collected — unreviewed

Searched for “helium recovery”, “helium liquefaction”, “helium extraction”, “cryogen-free” in titles and abstracts.

62 collected items, newest first ↓Judged by hand ↓Who is active ↓

All stagesFundamental researchApplied / labPilot / demonstrationEarly commercialAt scaleNewestMost cited

Judged by hand

Readiness and substitute status, with reasoning

  • SubstitutePilot / demonstrationJudgement, cited · 2026-09-17

    High-temperature superconducting magnets that run warmer

    demonstrated, not qualified. Where the helium is used to cool a superconductor rather than to reach the temperature for its own sake, a magnet that operates at higher temperature removes the need. USGS notes such superconductors are being developed for MRI. This displaces demand rather than substituting the material, and it is gated by the same REBCO tape supply the corpus already tracks — which is why it is a schedule, not a law.

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