This is one of those rare articles, in that I felt like I was actually smarter after reading

And even though I was already aware of the National Helium Reserve and some of its history:

Here's on what to do about the helium reserve.

At one time my job was to quench-test superconducting magnets destined for the Tevatron. Liquid helium would flash into vapor, pressurizing a relief valve, and a plume of the frigid gas would vent into the atmosphere, a process one of our cryo techs called "giving the helium back to God." about my job.

So I suppose I personally disposed of a small fraction of the National Helium Reserve in those days.

The Tevatron is shut down now. So the inventory of liquid helium at Fermilab is much, much smaller. We still have a lot of superconducting devices here, though. And we're planning to build more.