SCP-1491 — SCP-1491 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-1491 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-1491

Expected annual

$930K

One-time setup

$336K

Annual recurring

$900K

Personnel

First-year one-time setup (~$335k) plus recurring annual costs driven primarily by continuous human guard staffing and research/administration, with baseline annual costs around $900k; occasional incidents can raise annual costs substantially.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $336K

Initial Research And Lab Setup $125K

[#8] Initial specialized diagnostic research program (analog optics experiments, rented equipment, consultant physicists) and required research instruments for initial studies.

Contingency Reserve Initial $50K

[#16] Initial allocation to an insurance/liability/contingency reserve for unforeseen accidents, liability, or replacement costs.

Facilities $40K

[#1] Standard humanoid containment cell fit-out: reinforced door, observation view port, anti-tamper locks, secure airlock; cost assumes moderate new-build or moderate upgrades to existing cell.

Equipment $20K

[#2] Secure transport vehicle retrofit and secure transport cage / restraint gear; armored transfer van modifications and transfer equipment.

Cover Story Initial $20K

[#10] Initial cover-story and PR/legal documentation creation, retainer setup for counter-FOIA/initial legal contingencies.

Personnel Vetting One Time $18K

[#11] Up-front background checks/security-clearance costs for initial hires (per-hire fees aggregated for initial hiring batch).

Restraints And Emergency Eq Training One Time $18K

[#12] Initial purchase of restraints, sedative kits, emergency medical kits and initial rapid-response team training capital.

Audio Sensor Kit $15K

[#7] Purchase of audio recording equipment, contact microphones, non-imaging environmental sensors (numeric sensors rather than cameras).

Observation Protocol Development $10K

[#6] One-time development of standardized human-observer protocols, training materials, and documentation templates given visual-media limitations.

Documentation Recordkeeping Setup $10K

[#9] Secure written-log systems, transcription tools, secure digital systems with redaction protocols, initial archive setup.

Staff Morale Capex $10K

[#19] One-time small capital purchases for staff comfort (breakroom, PPE, ergonomic furniture) to improve retention given intensive human-observer requirements.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $900K/yr

Staff Wages $575K/yr

[#3, #4] Guard staffing (8 FTEs, continuous coverage with benefits) and research salaries (PI stipend portion + research assistants aggregated).

Research And Monitoring $65K/yr

[#4, #6, #8, #9] Ongoing non-salary research costs: periodic diagnostic follow-up ($25k/yr), observation administration/logging (~$30k/yr), archive audits/storage (~$10k/yr).

Opportunity Cost Overhead $60K/yr

[#21] Overhead added to account for increased staff hours, slowed research, and administrative friction due to lack of usable visual evidence (10–25% scale overhead).

Contingency Reserve Recurring $50K/yr

[#16] Annual contribution to contingency/reserve fund for liability, replacement, or exceptional costs.

Cover Story And Legal $30K/yr

[#10] Retained legal/PR budget for FOIA responses, leak mitigation, and legal contingencies.

Personnel Counter Intel $22K/yr

[#11] Ongoing counter-intelligence, staff monitoring, and security-clearance maintenance to reduce risk of leaks.

Medical And Psychiatric $20K/yr

[#5] Routine physicals, psychiatric assessments, medications and minor emergency medical care budget.

Incident Investigation Reserve $20K/yr

[#17] Annual budgeted allocation for incident investigations and audits (on-demand per-incident costs are higher; this is a recurring reserve/expectation).

Supplies And Consumables $10K/yr

[#14, #15, #19, #12] Food, laundry, hygiene supplies, routine medical consumables, waste disposal, and consumable PPE/replacements.

Restraints And Emergency Supplies Recurring $10K/yr

[#12] Ongoing refreshers, sedative supplies, restraint replacements, and consumables for emergency response capability.

Training And Drills $10K/yr

[#18] Regular staff training for non-photographic observation, witness corroboration, and containment protocol drills.

Publication Suppression Fund $10K/yr

[#20] Recurring allocation for NDAs, publication buyouts, and redaction costs in case research yields dissemination risk.

Logistics And Transport $8K/yr

[#2] Per-transfer consumables and operational costs (sedative/restraint consumables), vehicle maintenance/fuel and occasional transfer events (assumes a small number of transfers per year).

Facilities Maintenance $5K/yr

[#13] Utilities and routine facility overhead (electricity, HVAC share, water, sanitation) and minor maintenance for containment cell.

Small Capital Replacement $4K/yr

[#19] Recurring replacement and minor capital purchases for staff comfort and PPE refresh.

Audio And Sensor Maintenance $2K/yr

[#7] Annual maintenance, calibration, and replacements for audio and non-visual sensors.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $900K/yr

90.0% probability / year

Normal operational year with no containment incidents; steady-state staffing, routine research, and recurring administrative/legal costs.

no_incident routine_operations

🚨 Minor Incident $1.0M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$100K vs baseline

Minor containment or medical incident requiring investigation, limited emergency response, medical treatment, and short-term legal/PR activity.

medical_emergency minor_breach public_inquiry

🚨 Major Breach $2.0M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$1.1M vs baseline

Significant containment breach, public exposure, or a research-discovery that requires major legal containment and containment upgrades.

major_containment_failure public_exposure legal_action

👥 Personnel 11 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	8	Continuous human visual observation: 2guards/shift, 3 shifts; staffing level reflected in guard wage estimates. [#3]
Research Scientist	1	Directing researcher (PI) portion allocated to SCP-1491 oversight; salary portion included in staff_wages. [#4]
Research Assistant	2	Part-time RAs aggregated; salary portion included in staff_wages for recurring research support. [#4]

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed recurring ranges (particularly staff costs) but several items (incident frequency, depth of research, legal exposure) are high-variance; estimates use midpoints and conservative allocations where ranges exist.

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