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SCP-2318 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-2318
Expected annual
$25K
One-time setup
$353K
Annual recurring
$22K
Personnel
0.13
One-time setup and equipment purchases (display case, tracking, vehicle, rapid-response kit, research setup) total approximately $352,800; baseline recurring costs are modest (~$21,750/yr) dominated by fractional staffing, minimal research/monitoring, and maintenance. Major cost drivers are infrequent retrievals, overseas/covert operations, and catastrophic/remote recoveries.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $353K
Initial Research And Lab Setup $170K
[#16, #17, #20, #25] Initial multi-year research program setup and instrumentation, ethical/legal/IRB setup costs, initial background checks for authorized staff, initial record-retention/backup infrastructure.
Long Term Search Fund $100K
[#27] Contingent long-term search / replacement fund (multi-year reserve amortized as a one-time contingency allocation).
Equipment $83K
[#1, #2, #3, #4, #7, #8, #11, #12, #19, #22] Secure display case, initial tracker maintenance, case camera installation, access-control integration (one-time portion), lockboxes, containment kit (one-time portion), rapid-response retrieval kit, vehicle purchase, acoustic isolation/measurement rig, containment signage. Sum of chosen representative mid-range one-time purchases.
Facilities $0
[]
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $22K/yr
Research And Monitoring $5K/yr
[#16, #18] Ongoing/periodic forensic analysis campaigns and modest multi-year research monitoring (amortized low baseline).
Staff Wages $4K/yr
[#5] Fractional Level-2 technician time for daily checks (budgeted separately as fractional FTE).
Cover Story And Legal $3K/yr
[#9, #17] Annual reserve for minor cover-story PR responses and ongoing legal/compliance costs (recurring portion).
Recovery Coordination Staff $3K/yr
[#24] Fractional on-call logistics/operations coordination time (0.05 FTE-level budgeting).
Emergency Exercises $2K/yr
[#26] Annual containment/response drills and tabletop exercises (budgeted at modest baseline frequency).
Logistics And Transport $2K/yr
[#12, #23] Vehicle maintenance/fuel (baseline minimal) and occasional secure courier/inter-site shipping (small number of shipments annually).
Supplies And Consumables $800/yr
[#28] Gloves, tamper-evident tape, batteries, small consumables and minor shipping consumables.
It Maintenance $600/yr
[#4] Ongoing maintenance for access-control integration and logging systems.
Security Training $500/yr
[#6] Annual refresher security training to enforce ban on golf clubs and related policy enforcement.
Clearance Maintenance $500/yr
[#20] Periodic reinvestigations/clearance maintenance for authorized personnel (amortized baseline for ~5 authorized staff).
Record Storage Maintenance $300/yr
[#25] Ongoing secure storage, backups, and maintenance of incident logs and daily check records.
Case Monitoring Storage $200/yr
[#3] Camera footage storage and monitoring costs.
Transport Consumables $200/yr
[#8] Consumables per shipment (tamper-evident packaging, manifests) averaged annually.
Microscale Tracking Maintenance $150/yr
[#2] Battery replacement, firmware checks, periodic recalibration of implanted microscopic tracker (baseline annual maintenance).
Facilities Maintenance $0/yr
[]
Amnestic Witness Reserve $0/yr
[#10] Per-incident amnestic/witness management costs are handled as incident-driven expenditures (primary budgeting in scenarios); baseline reserve set to $0/yr.
Retrieval Mission Contingency Reserve $0/yr
[#13] Large per-incident retrieval mission costs (domestic/overseas/helicopter) are modeled in contingency scenarios rather than as an annual recurring line item.
Diplomatic Covert Ops Reserve $0/yr
[#14] Diplomatic/covert operational costs for foreign recoveries are highly episodic and are modeled in incident scenarios.
Marine Aerial Standby Reserve $0/yr
[#15] Marine/aerial charter costs are episodic and remain in incident scenario modeling.
Insurance Legal Reserve $0/yr
[#21] Large insurance/legal contingency budgets are episodic; primary provisioning occurs in incident scenarios or one-time contingencies.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $22K/yr
92.9% probability / year
Normal year with no retrieval incidents; routine monitoring, fractional staffing, minimal research activities, and periodic training/exercises.
no strikes no recovery incidents standard checks and maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $32K/yr
5.0% probability / year +$10K vs baseline
Small public exposure or brief loss requiring local retrieval, minor cover-story/PR response, and limited amnestic treatment.
brief public exposure civilian witness sighting local/domestic retrieval
🚨 Major Retrieval $122K/yr
2.0% probability / year +$100K vs baseline
Complicated overseas or politically sensitive recovery requiring covert liaison, travel, and extended field operations.
overseas landing hostile or sensitive jurisdiction extended field operation
🚨 Catastrophic Oceanic Recovery $522K/yr
0.1% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Ball lands in remote oceanic/remote terrain requiring ship/helicopter charters, extended search, or protracted multi-month recovery.
oceanic/remote impact need for ship/helicopter time protracted search/extraction
👥 Personnel 0.13 total
Role Count Notes
Level-2 Technician (fractional) 0.08 [#5] Fractional FTE responsible for daily checks (budgeted ~ $4,000/yr).
Recovery / Logistics Coordinator (on-call fractional) 0.05 [#24] On-call coordination portion (budgeted ~ $3,000/yr, ~0.05 FTE).
📋 Confidence Notes
Containment and routine costs are well described and yield a reasonably confident baseline estimate; however per-incident recovery and covert/diplomatic costs are highly variable and scenario-driven, lowering overall confidence.
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