How Much Was the Tevatron Worth?
How much was the Tevatron worth? That is, what value did society obtain from the 28 years of operating this particle accelerator?
Professor John Womersley, a UK big-science official, recently (and perhaps rashly) attempted to provide a back-of-the-envelope answer.
The Symmetry Breaking blog summarizes his talk-- which I attended-- and gives a link to a video of it.The Tevatron was completed in March 1983 and ran until September 2011. Womersley considered the cost of constructing and operating the accelerator and its experiments - about $4 billion in today’s currency - and found that, over its lifetime, the Tevatron had returned its investment roughly tenfold. [...]
According to the balance sheet at the end of Womersley’s exercise, $4 billion went into the Tevatron and roughly $50 billion came out.
The calculation is imprecise, but, Womersley said, “it confirms at least my gut feeling that there is a plausible case that it has been a very, very important economic driver over the last few decades.
“And it would be interesting if somebody could pay somebody to do this properly, as I make no claim that I’ve done this properly.”
Professor John Womersley, a UK big-science official, recently (and perhaps rashly) attempted to provide a back-of-the-envelope answer.
The Symmetry Breaking blog summarizes his talk-- which I attended-- and gives a link to a video of it.The Tevatron was completed in March 1983 and ran until September 2011. Womersley considered the cost of constructing and operating the accelerator and its experiments - about $4 billion in today’s currency - and found that, over its lifetime, the Tevatron had returned its investment roughly tenfold. [...]
According to the balance sheet at the end of Womersley’s exercise, $4 billion went into the Tevatron and roughly $50 billion came out.
The calculation is imprecise, but, Womersley said, “it confirms at least my gut feeling that there is a plausible case that it has been a very, very important economic driver over the last few decades.
“And it would be interesting if somebody could pay somebody to do this properly, as I make no claim that I’ve done this properly.”