Helium 3

As the Department of Homeland Security continues to develop new technology to detect and help prevent nuclear bombs from being smuggled across U.S. borders, a new problem has formed; we are running out of helium 3. America’s current demand for helium 3 appears to be about 10 times our supply. Helium 3 detects neutrons that are intermittently given off by plutonium, a major material used in nuclear devices. Helium 3 is formed when tritium decays. The government had a large supply of helium 3 at the end of the cold war, but after 1989 the government almost completely stopped manufacturing tritium, and therefore a large supply of helium 3 was no longer sustainable. President Obama called this shortage "a national crisis."
There is a major difference in the way nuclear bombs are view by today’s society compared to the cold war era. As other countries began developing nuclear weapons in the 50's, the government prepared siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in case of nuclear attacks. Fallout shelters were constructed in schools and backyards. Today our country is at war, yet fear of nuclear attack is not present in society. There is no N.E.A.R. program, no fallout shelters. We do have better nuclear detection programs, and better global relations and alliances (United Nations), but technically speaking we are still vulnerable to nuclear attacks. The fear that existed during the Cold War was not passed through the generations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23helium.html?_r=1&ref=us