A Home for Helium from Marketplace. I'm Sabrie Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

The US government owns a reserve of Helium and later today it's going to reveal bids by

private companies hoping to take that reserve off the government's hands.

There is a finite amount of helium on the planet, and yes, it's used for party balloons and Macy's parade floats,

but it is also critical for MRI machines, rocket fuel, and

semiconductors and industries that rely on it have been pushing for the

government to delay the sale as Marketplace's Henry Epp reports.

The federal helium system in Amarillo, Texas, supplies over 20% of the country's

helium, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

A lot of its infrastructure dates to the Cold War era.

The feds have been planning to sell the reserve to private

industry since 1996, yet it's only in the last few years that the sale process has

actually ramped up, though it's been delayed several times, but groups representing the medical device,

semiconductor, and aerospace industries which all rely on the noble gas, want it to be delayed even

longer.

In a letter to the Biden administration last fall, they warned that a

sale could disrupt the country's supply of helium which could quote, bring industrial

growth to a halt. But right now the sale process is moving ahead. The government will unveil bids

it received at 2 p.m. Central time today. I'm Henry App for Marketplace.

The International Court of Justice is expected to rule tomorrow on whether to order an interim stop to the

war in Gaza as it decides the larger question of whether Israel is carrying out a state-led

genocide there, as South Africa alleges.

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