On: The Federal Helium reserve is for sale

[twarge]

You are thinking of helium-3, of which there is none stored here.

It is very much harder to fuse helium-4.

[westurner → twarge]

I think it's both Helium-3 and Helium-4?

(Tritium (3H) decays into 3He with a 12 year half life. Before 12*n years, tritium is radioactive and denser than water and so it will pool and concentrate in ocean cavities for example at the seafloor. Tritium also probably has affinity for certain types of trash floating in the ocean, which Seabin and The Ocean Cleanup are addressing.)

Is laser-based nuclear transmutation of e.g. He4 into He3 easier with the high heat of a nuclear fusion reaction?

Helion's fusion process involves both He3 and He4: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37403522