I don't think privately designed/built/owned particle accelerators are that uncommon actually; hospitals have been using cyclotrons for cancer therapy treatment

I don't think privately designed/built/owned particle accelerators are that uncommon actually; hospitals have been using cyclotrons for cancer therapy treatments for at least a few years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron#Usage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron#Usage), and I'm fairly certain these are built and sold by medical equipment manufactures like Advanced Cyclotron. No denying it's still amazing though...