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SCP-1535 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-1535
Expected annual
$84K
One-time setup
$37K
Annual recurring
$74K
Personnel
5
Modest one-time setup (secure locker, recording/CCTV, environmental equipment, basic lab/animal-husbandry setup) of roughly $37k, with routine annual costs driven by staff wages, research/necropsy, animal care, legal/cover operations and contingency totaling about $73.7k/yr. Major cost drivers for escalation are sustained reptile testing and a funded research program.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $37K
Equipment $18K
[#3, #4, #5, #10, #15, #17, #21] Climate-control devices (dehumidifier/low-UV lighting), CCTV + tamper sensors, handling kit, high-fidelity recording gear, archival/lid housing, fine tools for lid work, and initial freezer equipment (one-time portions).
Facilities $9K
[#1] Secure containment locker: purchase + installation integrated into site secure storage.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $7K
[#7, #8] Animal room / husbandry setup (incubators, terraria) and initial pathology/necropsy kit.
Contingency Replacement Fund $3K
[#16] One-time contingency fund for accidental jar/lid damage or administrative reconstruction costs.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $74K/yr
Staff Wages $26K/yr
[#12, #13, #14] Research staff time, per-session translator/language support, and pro-rated security staffing for handling/testing.
Cover Story And Legal $10K/yr
[#18] Legal retainer, records management, cover-story maintenance and FOIA/PR response capacity (annualized).
Contingency Fund Annual $10K/yr
[#26] Annual contingency for unexpected behavior, specialist consults, rapid audits or extra security.
Research And Monitoring $9K/yr
[#8, #10, #11] Recurring necropsy/disposables costs, recording equipment maintenance/storage, and data/transcription/analysis services/licenses.
Animal Husbandry Annual $5K/yr
[#7] Recurring animal room costs (food, bedding, utilities, routine veterinary checks).
Facilities Maintenance $3K/yr
[#2] Pro-rated Site-18 storage allocation, HVAC share, and associated overhead for the dedicated locker/storage space.
Logistics And Transport $2K/yr
[#19] Intra-site and occasional inter-site armored/crated transport (as-needed, averaged annually).
Training And Audits $2K/yr
[#20] Training on fragile handling, SOP updates, and compliance audits.
Personnel Medical Surveillance $2K/yr
[#24] Occupational health, baseline checks and follow-up for a small (≈5-person) team.
Software Encryption $2K/yr
[#22] Secure database access, encryption, speech-to-text/Morse decoding tools and hosting/licenses.
Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr
[#5, #23] PPE replacement (gloves, face shields) and general lab consumables (notebooks, reagents, batteries, disinfectants).
Biohazard Disposal $1K/yr
[#9] Autoclave/incineration/contracted disposal of carcasses and contaminated consumables (small volume).
Archive Maintenance $550/yr
[#21] Freezer power/maintenance and long-term sample/audio archive upkeep (recurring portion).
Test Subject Procurement $250/yr
[#6] Baseline procurement (insect-focused testing example: ~50 insect tests/yr).
Small Research Project Budget $0/yr
[#25] Optional funded research program (20k–80k/yr). Set to 0 in baseline (not funded).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $74K/yr
80.0% probability / year
Routine year with low-frequency insect-focused testing, no major incidents and only baseline research activity.
no incidents low-frequency insect testing routine maintenance
🚨 Research Scale Up $131K/yr
15.0% probability / year +$58K vs baseline
Program chooses sustained reptile testing and funds a modest research project, increasing husbandry, specialist time, and project costs.
regular reptile testing formal research project budget additional staff/husbandry
🚨 Minor Incident $104K/yr
5.0% probability / year +$30K vs baseline
Accidental damage to jar or an unexpected procedural escalation requiring emergency specialist consults, legal/PR response, and containment upgrades.
accidental jar damage emergency specialist consults urgent legal/cover response
👥 Personnel 5 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 1 [#12, #13] Per-test researcher time; may be part-time/allocated across multiple projects (costed in staff_wages).
Research Technician 1 [#8, #13] Technician to handle specimens, necropsy prep and data logging (included in staff_wages).
Animal Care Technician 1 [#7, #6] Maintains quarantine/terraria and husbandry for test subjects (costed in animal_husbandry_annual and staff_wages).
Security Officer / MTF Agent 1 [#14, #19] Short-duration security presence for handling sessions and escort/transport duties (pro-rated into staff_wages/logistics).
Administrative Staff 1 [#18, #20] Records management, cover/FOIA liaison, training coordination and SOP upkeep (costs allocated to cover_story_and_legal and training_and_audits).
📋 Confidence Notes
Line-item ranges and testing tempo are well-described in analyst notes, but annual spend depends heavily on testing frequency (insect vs. reptile) and discretionary research funding, so uncertainty remains around scenario selection and frequency.
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