RE:RE:RE:Helium-3
Thanks, very interesting. Remember that no well produces pure helium3. A "good" well for Helium3 has 200-300 helium3 atoms for every million helium4 atoms. (primordial gas or cosmological gas which comes from deeper source via super plume). A "normal" well for He3 has 5-20 atoms of helium3 per million atoms of He4. In this case the primordial helium is diluted by helium produced from radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in crust/upper mantlewhich is almost all helium4. The helium from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium is still hundreds of millions of years in the making, but it is a lot newer than the cosmological helium that was part of formation of the earth and indeed the solar system. Solar winds have depositied this type of helium on surface of moon, but to mine it there would be costly and would still involve costly separation of the tiny amounts of He3 (300 ppm) from He4. It is a lot better prospect to separate it from some He3 rich helium (300 ppm) right on earth, right in Arizona. That is what Rohlfing is hinting at.
It i costly and difficult to purify the helium3 but it is very valuable once purified. In case of DME they may be very lucky because the US Department of energy may be willing to buy good helium (300 atoms of He3 per million atoms of Helium4) and purify it themselves, likely reselling the Helium3 to Intel or other technology customers.