Sounds about right!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider#Cost

> With a budget of 7.5 billion euros (approx. $9bn or £6.19bn as of Jun 2010), the LHC is one of the most expensive scientific instruments ever built.

If only they'd put in $1b more, they'd have found that Higgs boson by now.

I think what he means is "systematic_error = 1/log(log(equipment_cost))"