Talk:Volatiles Refinery/@comment-25153693-20140708133430/@comment-24951265-20140708153256

Indeed - helium does have to be physically trapped, as it does not react chemically under normal conditions. And He4 is a retired alpha particle - He3 isn't. In fact, He3 is so rare fairly specifically because it's not an alpha particle - its primary mode of production in nucleosynthesis is as the decay product from H3, and as for the most part the production of H3 requires the fusion of H1 and H2 nuclei, or the very rare fusion of three H1 simultaneously (amazingly rare, but the Universe is a big place, so it happens often enough to need to be accounted for) you can see why there might not be too much of it.

Oddly enough, it's one of the few isotopes that we produce specifically as such on an industrial basis, though the annual output is on the order of 8 kilograms (which would by no means be enough for complete replacement of power generation by He3-He3 fusion plants...)

Helium is such a *FUN* element to study!