Critical Material List; Addition of Helium

Summary

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) is issuing this notice to advise the public that DOE added helium to the DOE Critical Material List. This notice also provides the link to the assessment that forms the justification for including helium on the Critical Material List. Helium is 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. Demand for helium is also growing as it enables advanced semiconductor manufacturing, which is essential for SI and data center supply chains.