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SCP-185 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-185
Expected annual
$2.1M
One-time setup
$2.3M
Annual recurring
$2.0M
Personnel
15
Initial setup and capital/reserve items total about $2.27M one-time (dominated by contingency and policy set-aside), and ongoing operations are roughly $2.03M/year driven primarily by staff wages, legal/cover costs, and research/monitoring budgets.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.3M
Long Term Policy Set Aside $1.0M
[#26] Policy reserve (set-aside) for potential program escalation, interagency liaison and non-proliferation oversight.
Contingency Reserve $500K
[#22] Incident/response fund reserved for emergency leak, urgent testing, legal defense, whistleblower payouts, etc.
Advanced Materials Analysis $200K
[#10] Non-destructive imaging campaign: X-ray CT, neutron imaging, synchrotron beamtime, SEM/TEM, MS and specialist interpretation.
Facilities $100K
[#1, #2] Construction of a double-walled soundproof/anechoic containment room and integrated EMI/Faraday lining, RF seals, grounding and isolated HVAC.
Materials Access Rd $100K
[#11] R&D and mechanical attempts to access keypad box (custom tooling, cutting trials, contract machinists).
Hiring Onboarding $80K
[#9] Recruiting, relocation, medicals, baseline testing and orientation for research staff.
Clearance And Screening $60K
[#7] Security clearance, polygraphs, background checks and initial screening for 12 personnel.
It Security Setup $50K
[#13] Hardened classified network segment, SIEM/HSM procurement and initial hardening.
Legal Retainer $50K
[#21] Initial legal/liaison retainer for counsel and cover-up preparation.
Backup Power $30K
[#17] UPS + ATS + 20–30 kW standby generator and installation.
Secure Transport $30K
[#20] Armored courier and EMI-shielded transport crate for initial transfer.
Equipment $25K
[#3] High-fidelity noise-filtering microphone array, preamps, ADC and rack hardware for capture and digitization.
Physical Security Systems $25K
[#19] CCTV, biometrics, vibration/tamper sensors and encrypted recording installation.
Evidence Archival Systems $15K
[#12] Encrypted WORM storage hardware and tamper-evident archival setup (initial hardware).
Ppe $2K
[#5] Initial purchase of industrial-grade ear protection sets and storage (20 sets).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $0
[]
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.0M/yr
Staff Wages $1.5M/yr
[#6, #8, #23] Annual compensation for 6 security guards (~$300k), core research team (~$1.1M) and 1 archivist (~$60k).
Research And Monitoring $280K/yr
[#4, #12, #14, #15] Real-time DSP/software licensing ($5k), evidence replication/storage ($5k), translation/cryptanalysis ($120k) and experimentation program budgets ($150k) aggregated for monitoring and research operational costs.
Cover Story And Legal $200K/yr
[#21] Annual legal, liaison and cover-up budget for outside interactions and managed disclosures.
It Security Managed Services $30K/yr
[#13] Ongoing managed services, patching, audits and vulnerability scanning for classified network.
Medical And Psych $20K/yr
[#16] Baseline and periodic hearing tests, counselling and occupational medicine.
Physical Security Monitoring $15K/yr
[#19] Monitoring, maintenance and subscription services for CCTV/biometrics/alarms.
Training And Drills $10K/yr
[#25] Annual training, drills and protocol revision costs.
Backup Power Maintenance $5K/yr
[#17] Fuel contract and generator maintenance/annual testing.
Routine Maintenance And Calibration $5K/yr
[#24] Microphone calibration, cable replacement and small repairs.
Hvac And Environmental $3K/yr
[#18] Climate control energy and upkeep for audio stability and artifact conservation.
Supplies And Consumables $500/yr
[#5] Annual PPE replacements/consumables.
Facilities Maintenance $0/yr
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Logistics And Transport $0/yr
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⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.0M/yr
93.5% probability / year
Normal, uneventful year with routine operations and no containment incidents.
no incidents scheduled research and monitoring
🚨 Minor Incident $2.2M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline
Localized containment/technical incident requiring repairs, overtime, short-term investigation and limited medical follow-up.
small breach or equipment failure limited staff exposure
🚨 Major Breach $4.0M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline
Significant containment failure or hazardous transmission event (analogous to Incident 185-1) causing casualties, site repairs, legal/medical costs and extended research halt.
catastrophic acoustic/physiological event structural damage and fatalities
🚨 Political Exposure $3.5M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline
Program escalation or political exposure resulting in interagency operations, covert liaison needs and activation of policy set-aside.
decision to exploit intelligence capability external political or interagency involvement
👥 Personnel 15 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 6 [#6] 24/7 coverage (three shifts with relief), estimated 6 guards included in security wages.
Research Scientist 1 [#8] Lead scientist on the core research team.
RF Engineer 1 [#8] RF engineering support for reception and instrumentation.
Materials Scientist 1 [#8] Materials analysis and non-destructive testing liaison.
Cryptanalyst 2 [#8, #14] Two cryptanalysts/linguistic analysts for decryption and cipher work; budgets for translation/cryptanalysis are recurring.
Technician 2 [#8, #3] Two technicians for equipment operation, calibration and maintenance.
Archivist / Historian 1 [#23] Full-time archivist with part-time historian support; archival duties included in recurring wages.
📋 Confidence Notes
Estimates are order-of-magnitude based on analyst notes; staffing and legal budgets are reasonably well-specified but contingency reserves, long-term policy set-asides and incident probabilities are uncertain.
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