Most Expensive Object On Earth

What will be the most expensive object on Earth? What is your first thought? It would be diamond. Or it would be any kind of ornament.

But believe or not, a new nuclear power station in the south-west of the UK will be the most expensive object on Earth. It  is the claim of the developers about the proposed plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. But do you think, has ever, anything else cost so much to build?

The environmental charity Greenpeace said

Hinkley is set to be the most expensive object on Earth… best guesses say Hinkley could pass $35bn,

Aforementioned figure includes an estimate for paying interest on borrowed money. But the financing arrangements for Hinkley C are so opaque that it is impossible to calculate exactly what the final cost will be. The price is still high, though, if you stick with the expense of construction alone, the main contractor puts it at $26bn.

One could build a small forest for world’s tallest building – Burj Khalifas Dubai, only cost a piffling $1.5bn.  You could also knock up more than 70 miles of particle accelerator.  Here’s another one, Large Hadron Collider, which is 17 mile long, built under the border between France and Switzerland to unlock the secrets of the universe, cost a mere $5.8bn.  

Question is, why Hinkley C is so expensive?

Emeritus professor of energy policy at Greenwich University, Steve Thomas says,

Nuclear power plants are the most complicated piece of equipment we make. Cost of nuclear power plants has tended to go up throughout history as accidents happen and we design measures to deal with the risk.

Sizewell B, UK’s newest nuclear power station, which was completed in 1995, in comparison, only cost $3.4bn or $6bn at today’s prices.

But I think Pakistani power plants would be way more expensive then that of Hinkley C.

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