← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-001-EX Explained ~ medium confidence
The Great Hippo's Proposal (feat. PeppersGhost)
Expected annual
$8.7M
One-time setup
$31.9M
Annual recurring
$8.4M
Personnel
32
Estimated one-time setup and hardening costs are approximately $32M driven primarily by a large contingency reserve and TEMPEST vault construction; ongoing recurring operations are roughly $8.45M/year driven by staff wages, rapid-response/MTF readiness, and continuous research/monitoring.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $31.9M
Contingency Reserve $25.0M
[#25] Large one-time set-aside fund reserve for high-consequence anomalous outcomes (order-of-magnitude reserve chosen within analyst range).
Facilities $4.5M
[#1] Construction and TEMPEST certification of a secure containment vault / TEMPEST-rated room; includes physical blast/forced-entry hardening and certification testing.
Equipment $775K
[#3, #6, #13, #16] Modern emulation cluster hardware, air-gap/data-diode hardware, continuous-monitoring sensor suite setup, and secure archival hardware/media escrow setup.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $600K
[#2, #11] Physical preservation/restoration one-time setup for 1955-era hardware and one-time data stewardship migration/tooling costs.
Power Infrastructure $400K
[#4] UPS strings, generator installation and site integration (one-time installation costs).
Environmental Controls $300K
[#5] HVAC, tight humidity/temperature controls, particulate filtration, and fire-suppression installation (one-time).
Decommissioning $300K
[#17] One-time costs associated with controlled shutdown, secure transport, destructive disposal or verified archiving if O5 authorizes decommissioning.
Clearance Initial $75K
[#19] Upfront per-person high-clearance investigation/setup costs aggregated as an initial program expense.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $8.4M/yr
Logistics And Transport $2.1M/yr
[#8, #29] Annual baseline for MTF/rapid-response standby earmark and routine secure logistics; includes armored/secure transfer readiness and a standing deployment fund.
Staff Wages $2.1M/yr
[#7, #9, #10, #24] Annual fully-burdened payroll for on-site security (guards + supervisor), RAISA Level-4 officer and supporting analysts, Containment Director and direct administrative support, and core cybersecurity staffing.
Research And Monitoring $1.8M/yr
[#3, #11, #12, #13, #28, #30] Ongoing costs for emulation maintenance, data stewardship and storage, ML-safety research programs, continuous sensor logging/storage, follow-up experiments prompted by outputs, and records/replication costs.
Cover Story And Legal $800K/yr
[#15, #27] Ongoing retainer for cover-story, legal, PR, and whistleblower mitigation plus public-disclosure simulation retainers (per-incident response costs are additional and accounted for in scenarios).
Forensic Incident Response Pool $400K/yr
[#14] Annual recurring pool for forensic investigations, incident response teams, and third-party specialist engagements.
Training Exercises $300K/yr
[#23] Multi-site drills, MAYDAY integration exercises, tabletop and communications testing.
Facilities Maintenance $285K/yr
[#4, #5, #21] Recurring power/fuel/UPS/generator maintenance and testing, HVAC/cooling operation & maintenance, and ongoing energy bills / peak-demand charges.
Ethics Board $150K/yr
[#26] Costs for Ethics Committee reviews, external consultants, and emergency ethics sessions triggered by proposals.
Psychological Services $125K/yr
[#18] Ongoing psychological screening, rotation, counseling, and memetic debrief services for staff exposed to predictive outputs.
Clearance Program Recurring $100K/yr
[#19] Annual program costs for staff clearance renewals, continuous monitoring, and reinvestigations.
Audit And Certifications $100K/yr
[#20] External TEMPEST/OPSEC audits, certification renewals, and remediation.
Supplies And Consumables $90K/yr
[#22] Consumables and spare parts inventory (vacuum tubes, tapes, filters, batteries, replacement parts) for legacy and modern hardware.
Legacy Preservation $75K/yr
[#2] Annual specialist technician labor and parts specifically for preservation/restoration of 1955-era hardware.
Archival Storage Recurring $40K/yr
[#16] Ongoing costs for geographically separated cold storage, integrity checks, and escrow maintenance.
Airgap Security Testing $25K/yr
[#6] Regular certification/penetration testing and maintenance for hardware diodes, TEMPEST-hardened consoles, and secure terminals.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $8.4M/yr
83.0% probability / year
Normal year with regular operations and no major incident or large-scale deployments.
routine_maintenance regular_research_activity scheduled_training_exercises
🚨 Minor Incident $8.9M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Localized incident requiring forensic response, a small MTF deployment, and cover-story/legal actions.
limited_mayday_deployment small_data_leak_or_maladaptive_proposal targeted_forensic_investigation
🚨 Major Breach $18.4M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$10.0M vs baseline
Significant containment failure or wide dissemination of dangerous outputs requiring large-scale deployments, emergency remediation, and major contingency spending.
systemic_malicious_output multi-site_breach public_exposure_requiring_major_response
👥 Personnel 32 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 13 [#7] 12 full-time guards plus 1 supervisor for 24/7 coverage (three-shift rotation).
RAISA Level-4 Officer 1 [#9] Single Level-4 officer assigned to SCP-001 reports (on-call responsibilities included in recurring RAISA costs).
RAISA Analyst 4 [#9] Supporting analysts/data reviewers to interpret predictive outputs and prepare cover stories.
Containment Director / Executive Staff 1 [#10] Senior containment staff to design and authorize procedures based on outputs.
Administrative Staff 1 [#10] Administrative support for expedited O5 briefings and logistics.
Research Scientist / ML Researcher 3 [#12, #28] Personnel conducting ML-safety research, memetic mitigation, and follow-up experiments.
Data Engineer 2 [#11, #30] Staff for dataset curation, provenance auditing, and records synchronization.
Engineer / Maintenance (Technician) 4 [#3, #4, #5] On-site technicians for daily maintenance, HVAC/power upkeep, and emulation cluster support (original article recommends four or more IntSCPFN technicians).
IT Security / Cybersecurity 2 [#24] Dedicated cybersecurity personnel for intrusion testing, log analysis, and air-gap validation.
Medical Officer 1 [#18] Medical/mental-health provider for screening, counseling, and memetic debriefs.
📋 Confidence Notes
Estimates based on analyst ranges and mid-point selections; contingency sizing and incident probabilities are judgment-driven and sensitive to governance risk tolerance and frequency of dangerous outputs, hence medium confidence.
← SCP-001-ETC-PROPOSAL ↑ All SCPs SCP-001-FISHISH-S-PROPOSAL-J →