vansig wrote: presently as far as i know, Helium is seldom recycled.

it’s just too precious to let go.

can we scoop it from earth’s upper atmosphere?

Helium recycling is really picking up at the national labs due to cost and Department of Energy rules. The large helium using labs like the national high field lab at Florida State was instituting helium recycling for their large superconducting magnet systems. The commercial magnet systems are probably going to follow suit in the next few years as helium costs or lack of supply might damage their business. Higher temp superconducting magnets are also in the works for MRI systems. We could drop a great deal of demand (~20%) if SC magnets worked at 10 K instead of 4 K.

Given the concerns about helium, how can one build a power grid based upon helium cooled reactors (fusion or fission)? Seems a bit problematic.