Top 10 Most Expensive Single Objects in the World

Here we our today with the list of Top 10 World’s Most Expensive Single Objects. We have tried our level best to gather information from various sources, and inter-tallied them. This list is not limited to objects of commercial use. It is for the sole purpose of identifying expensive man-made objects and the respective economic costs involved in building them.

1. International Space Station(Cost: $157 Billion)

The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by late 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. With a greater mass than that of any previous space station, the ISS can be seen from Earth with the naked eye, and is by far the largest artificial satellite that has ever orbited Earth. The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, chemistry, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology. The station has a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars.The ISS is operated by Expedition crews, with the station programme maintaining an uninterrupted human presence in space since the launch of Expedition 1 on 31 October 2000, a total of 9 years and 262 days.

* Country : Canada, European Space Agency, Japan, Russia, United States
* Year of completion : 2011 (expected)
* Cost: $157 Billion

2. Itaipu Dam (Cost: $27 Billion)

The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name “Itaipu” was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means “the sound of a stone”. The American composer Philip Glass has also written a symphonic cantata named Itaipu, in honour of the structure.

The dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity, generating 94.7 TWh in 2008 and 91.6 TWh in 2009, while the annual generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was 80.8 TWh in 2008 and 79.4 TWh in 2009. It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Friendship Bridge. The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra and Salto del Guaíra in the north. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units providing 700 MW each with a hydraulic design head of 118 m. In 2008 the plant generated a record 94.68 billion kWh, supplying 90% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 19% of that consumed by Brazil.

* Country : Brazil, Paraguay
* Year of completion : 1984
* Cost: $27 Billion

3. Three Gorges Dam(Cost: $25 Billion)

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.

The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008 when the 26th generator in the shore plant began commercial operation. Each generator has a capacity of 700 MW.Six additional generators in the underground power plant are not expected to become fully operational until 2011.

* Country : China
* Year of completion : 2011 (expected)
* Cost: $25 Billion

4. James Bay Project ( Cost: 13.8 billion)

The James Bay Project refers to the construction by state-owned utility Hydro-Québec of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada, and the diversion of neighbouring rivers into the La Grande watershed. It is located between James Bay to the west and Labrador to the east and its waters flow from the Laurentian Plateau of the Canadian Shield. The project covers an area of the size of the State of New York and is one of the largest hydroelectric systems in the world. The project has cost upwards of $13 billion US to build and has an installed generating capacity of 16,000 megawatts, three times more than all of the power stations at Niagara Falls, eight times the power of Hoover Dam, and over twice the power of all eight reactors units at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, the largest in North America. If fully expanded to include all of the original planned dams, as well as the additional “James Bay II” projects, the system would generate a total of 27,000 MW, making it the largest hydroelectric system in the world.

* Country : Canada
* Year of completion : 1972
* Cost: 13.8 billion

5. CVN-78 Class Aircraft Carrier (Cost: $8.1 Billion)

The CVN-78-class aircraft carriers (or Ford-class) are a planned class of supercarrier for the United States Navy, intended to replace the current Nimitz-class carriers. The new vessels will use a hull design very similar to the Nimitz carriers, but many aspects of the design will be very different, implementing new technologies developed since the initial design of the previous class (such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System), as well as other design features intended to improve efficiency and running costs, including a reduced crew requirement. The first hull of the line will be named Gerald R. Ford, and will have the hull number CVN-78.

* Country : United States
* Year of completion : 2015 (expected)
* Cost: $8.1 Billion

6. Alaska Pipeline (Cost: $8 Billion)

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), includes the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. It is commonly called the Alaska Pipeline, Trans-Alaska Pipeline, or Alyeska Pipeline, (or the Pipeline as referred to in Alaska), but those terms technically apply only to the 800.302 miles (1,287.961 km) of the pipleline with the diameter of 48 inches (122 cm) that conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay, to Valdez, Alaska. The crude oil pipeline is privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project.

* Country :United State
* Year of completion : 1977
* Cost: $8 Billion

7. Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant(Cost: $7.2 Billion)

The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland. It is one of Finland’s two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unitVVER Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant.

The Olkiluoto plant consists of two BWRs with 860 MWe each. These were supplied by ASEA-Atom, now a part of ABB Group. The plant is operated by Teollisuuden Voima, a subsidiary of Pohjolan Voima. Unit three, the first EPR (European Pressurized water Reactor) is under construction, but various problems with workmanship and supervision have created costly delays, and been the subject of an inquiry by the Finnish nuclear regulator STUK.A license for a fourth reactor to be built at the site was granted by the Finnish parliament in July 2010.

* Country: Finland
* Year of completion : 2012 (expected)
* Cost: $7.2 Billion

8. ITER – Experimental Fusion Reactor (Cost: $6.5 Billion)

ITER - International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is an international tokamak (magnetic confinement fusion) research/engineering project that could help to make the transition from today’s studies of plasmaphysics to future electricity-producing fusion power plants. It builds on research done with devices such as DIII-D,EAST, ADITYA, KSTAR, TFTR, ASDEX Upgrade, Joint European Torus, JT-60, Tore Supra and T-15.

* Country: China, European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States
* Year of completion: 2016 (expected)
* Cost: $6.5 Billion

9. Large Hadron Collider (Cost: $6 Billion)

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected that it will address themost fundamental questions of physics, advancing our understanding of the deepest laws of nature.

The LHC lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference, as much as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the Franco-Swiss border nearGeneva, Switzerland. This synchrotron is designed to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts(1.12 microjoules) per particle, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 µJ) per nucleus. The term hadron refers to particles composed of quarks.

* Country: Switzerland
* Year of completion: 2008
* Cost: $6 Billion

10. Oresund Bridge (Cost:$6 Billion)

The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is a combined twin-track railroad and four-lane highway bridge-tunnel across the Öresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and it is the longest highway and railroad bridge in Europe. The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the Danish capital city of Copenhagen and the major Swedish city of Malmö. Furthermore, the Øresund Bridge connects the highway network of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe.

* Official name: Øresundsbroen, Öresundsbron
* Carries: Four lanes of European route E20 Double track Oresund Railway Line
* Locale: Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden
* Designer: Georg Rotne
* Design: Cable-stayed bridge
* Total length: 7,845 metres (25,738 ft)
* Width: 23.5 metres (77.1 ft)
* Longest span: 490 metres (1,608 ft)
* Cost: $6 Billion
* Country: Denmark, Sweden
* Year of completion: 2000

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