SCP-040 — SCP-040 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-040 Anomalous ~ medium confidence

SCP-040

Expected annual

$4.3M

One-time setup

$4.0M

Annual recurring

$4.1M

Personnel

Initial capital outlay is approximately $4,040,000 driven by facility buildout, lab equipment, disposal and contingency/reserve funds. Ongoing annual costs are approximately $4,141,725/yr driven primarily by staff wages and benefits, research operations, disposal and cover/PR/legal retainer.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $4.0M

Facilities $1.1M

[#1] Secure juvenile containment suite construction, room outfitting, observation suite, airlocks, reinforced walls/doors, child-safe furnishings and permits.

Long Term Decommissioning Fund $750K

[#25] Long-term containment upgrade / decommissioning reserve (one-time set-aside).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $700K

[#10] Dedicated research laboratory capital equipment (sequencer, microscopes, biosafety cabinets, autoclave, imaging, PPE stock) and initial lab buildout for BSL-2 analysis.

Equipment $580K

[#2, #3, #4, #6, #13, #21] Containment HVAC/HEPA install, backup generators/UPS, CCTV/biometric monitoring suite, rapid-response equipment (one-time portion), wastewater/decon install, and transport vehicle purchase.

Containment Reserve Fund $350K

[#20] Containment-breach insurance / indemnity reserve fund (set-aside one-time portion).

Biospecimen Disposal One Time $250K

[#11] On-site bioincinerator purchase and permitting (one-time option).

Cover Story Setup $200K

[#18] One-time legal/cover-story creation, NDAs and initial covert operations setup.

Security Clearance One Time $60K

[#17] Initial security clearance processing and background checks for core staff (~30 staff initial estimate).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $4.1M/yr

Staff Wages $1.4M/yr

[#5, #7, #8, #9] Core annual salaries (security guards and supervisors, child psychologist and pediatric medical officer, childcare/tutors, veterinary officer & technicians, research scientists and lab technicians) — base payroll only.

Research And Monitoring $700K/yr

[#9] Ongoing laboratory research team operating costs, experiments, on-call incident analysis and study of modification mechanics (salaries placed in staff_wages; this covers program-level research operations and overhead).

Contingency $540K/yr

[#27] Miscellaneous and contingency line (15% of baseline operating budget to cover unforeseen biosafety upgrades, fines, increased testing, etc.).

Personnel Benefits $490K/yr

[#22] Personnel medical insurance, retirement, benefits and retention premiums (~35% assumed of base payroll).

Cover Story And Legal $250K/yr

[#18, #19] Annual legal retainer, cover maintenance and public-relations / misinformation and community management operations.

Supplies And Consumables $105K/yr

[#12, #8] Experimental consumables, PPE, medical and veterinary supplies, food and routine lab consumables.

Reserve Replenishment $100K/yr

[#20] Annual target replenishment for containment-breach reserve / indemnity fund.

Additional Disposal $100K/yr

[#23] Extra necropsy, toxicology, hazardous cleanup and disposal budget to cover high failure-rate outcomes (~66% failure rate).

Facilities Maintenance $94K/yr

[#2, #3, #4, #13, #16] HVAC filters/operations, generator fuel & maintenance, CCTV/license maintenance, decon consumables, and utilities (energy/water).

Recruiting Training $75K/yr

[#26] Recruiting, continuous training, turnover costs and scenario training including staff simulation with the subject present.

Rapid Response Retainer $60K/yr

[#6] Annual training, retention and readiness costs for rapid-response/MTF-style team (recurring training/retainer).

Educational Services $60K/yr

[#15] Special education teacher, curriculum development and developmental enrichment costs.

Biospecimen Disposal Contract $50K/yr

[#11] Contract disposal or ops cost for routine specimen destruction when contract used (alternative to on-site incinerator).

Medical Imaging $50K/yr

[#14] Access to MRI/CT and routine diagnostic imaging and diagnostics.

Ethics Oversight $38K/yr

[#24] Ethics board oversight, internal review and legal compliance monitoring costs.

Logistics And Transport $15K/yr

[#21] Vehicle operations, secure transfer consumables and sedation kit replenishment.

Security Clearance Renewals $15K/yr

[#17] Periodic reinvestigations and renewal costs for cleared staff.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $4.1M/yr

85.0% probability / year

Normal year with planned research activity, routine maintenance, staffing and cover operations with no major incidents.

routine_research scheduled_operations no_breach

🚨 Minor Incident $4.2M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$50K vs baseline

Limited containment incident or medical emergency requiring additional medical care, temporary repairs and limited PR/legal engagement.

localized_breach medical_treatment minor_facility_repairs

🚨 Major Breach $6.6M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$2.5M vs baseline

Significant containment breach involving SCP-040 or created SCP-040-1 entities requiring large-scale response, repairs, legal action and extended PR/cover ops.

facility_breach large_scale_decontamination litigation_and_public_exposure

🚨 Research Spike $5.3M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$1.2M vs baseline

Year of accelerated experimentation (higher throughput of tests), producing many SCP-040-1 instances and increased disposal, necropsy and overtime costs.

expanded_testing increased_disposal overtime_and_temp_staff

👥 Personnel 19 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	8	[#5] 24/7 guard coverage including supervisors and overlap for leave (~8 FTE).
Psychologist / Therapist	1	[#7] Full-time child psychologist / therapist for SCP-040.
Medical Officer / Pediatrician	1	[#7] Pediatric medical officer for regular care and medical oversight.
Childcare Staff / Tutors	2	[#7] Childcare/correspondence tutors providing schooling and supervision.
Veterinary Officer	1	[#8] On-site veterinarian to care for companion SCP-040-1 instances.
Animal-care Technician	2	[#8] Animal-care technicians for daily care, enrichment and husbandry.
Research Scientist (senior)	2	[#9] Senior researchers leading study of modification mechanics and failure modes.
Lab Technician	2	[#9] Laboratory technicians supporting experiments and on-call incident analysis.

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates are drawn directly from analyst notes and SCP text but include judgement calls (midpoint selections, benefit allocation, contingency percentage). Uncertainties remain around choice of on-site disposal vs contract, research tempo, and incidence probabilities.

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