{"id":892340,"date":"2026-10-23T21:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T21:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892340\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T21:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T21:48:11","slug":"u-s-designates-helium-a-critical-material-following-60-minutes-report-on-supply-chain-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892340\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. designates helium a critical material following 60 Minutes report on supply chain crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Energy Department designated helium as a critical material Friday, days after a 60 Minutes report<\/a> that examined the impact of the Iran war on the world’s helium supply.<\/p>\n

The designation, which makes more federal financing available for helium producers, cited its “essential role in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced energy technologies.”<\/p>\n

Even though the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of helium, a range of industries have felt the impact of a shortage<\/a> seven months after Iranian strikes on a Qatari gas facility and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Materials defined as critical by the Energy Department by law must have a high risk of supply chain disruption and serve an essential function for energy technologies.<\/p>\n

The nonrenewable gas \u2014 which can become a liquid when cold enough \u2014 is well known for its use in inflating balloons, but is also necessary for manufacturing smartphones, cars, MRI machines and other technologies, sparking huge demand.<\/p>\n

“Helium is essential to producing the semiconductors and advanced technologies that power our economy,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in announcing the designation Friday.<\/p>\n

“By designating helium as a critical material, we are taking another step toward securing our supply chains, creating American jobs, and ensuring the United States leads the world in energy and technological innovation,” Wright said.<\/p>\n

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz in February trapped one-third of the global helium supply in the Persian Gulf. Then, Ras Laffan, a facility that produces helium in Qatar, was hit by Iranian strikes in March, further rattling supply chains.<\/p>\n

The Energy Department’s Federal Register announcement describes helium as “non-substitutable for multiple critical energy functions, including: semiconductor manufacturing, leak testing natural gas infrastructure, and quantum computing, along with being essential to key medical\/scientific applications.”<\/p>\n

The announcement notes that demand for helium is growing.<\/p>\n

The Energy Department last designated a critical material in 2025, applying the label to metallurgical coal, which is used to make coke, a key ingredient in manufacturing steel. There are now 20 such designated critical materials.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Energy Department designated helium as a critical material Friday, days after a 60 Minutes report that examined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,101827,3,21,59665,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-892340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-helium","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-department-of-energy","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}