Helium rush is on

China, U.S. shoot for moon's helium stock: CHINA's recent announcement that it plans to put a man on the moon by 2017 has started a space race with the U.S. for the lunar equivalent of El Dorado. Only it's not gold these two nations are after. It's helium-3, the gas some scientists tout as the fuel of the 21st century. The top metre of the moon's surface is believed to hold more than 1-million tons of helium-3, a substance rare on Earth. Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says a single pound of helium-3 could generate as much electricity as one to 10 million pounds of coal. Read it ...