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SCP-2496 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-2496
Expected annual
$3.3M
One-time setup
$3.9M
Annual recurring
$3.3M
Personnel
9
Initial capital costs are dominated by specialized lab buildout and optional on-site MRI installation (~$3.9M one-time). Annual operating costs (~$3.25M/yr baseline) are driven by personnel (medical, security, cyber, research), legal/insurance/reserves, and an administrative overhead reserve.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $3.9M
Initial Research And Lab Setup $3.1M
[#4, #10, #12, #14, #16] Medical monitoring hardware (ECG/EEG/etc.), sensor and instrumentation suite, optional on-site MRI installation (capital), secure compute cluster and initial software/hardware for data analysis, initial SOP/training development.
Facilities $450K
[#3] Dedicated secure testing chamber construction, shielding, two-way observation, CCTV and structural hardening.
Equipment $180K
[#1, #2, #8, #23] Secure digital containment hardware and crypto modules; access-control/test-wrapper development (one-time dev); initial redundant write-once media; media sanitization / secure-comm destruction hardware.
Mtf Initial Training $100K
[#7] One-time specialized training and exercises for rapid-response / MTF team specific to SCP-2496 protocols.
Decommissioning Archive $50K
[#25] One-time costs for verified archival or secure destruction procedures and verification.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.3M/yr
Staff Wages $835K/yr
[#5, #6, #9, #22] Salaries for on-site operational staff: medics/neuropsychologist coverage, two security officers (Level-2), cybersecurity/monitoring lead, research scientist salaries (portion of program staffing).
Cover Story And Legal $750K/yr
[#18, #19, #20] Legal counsel and cover-story management, public-relations / disinformation contingency reserves, and insurance/liability reserve funds.
Administrative Overhead $650K/yr
[#27] Administrative/indirect overhead (20–35% applied to direct recurring costs).
Research And Monitoring $400K/yr
[#11, #12, #14, #22, #26] Controlled research program budget, ethics/IRB oversight, data-processing licenses/cloud, occasional MRI rental sessions, periodic audits and compliance checks.
Mtf Standby $250K/yr
[#7] Recurring budget for a small dedicated rapid-response / MTF standby team: training, readiness, and retained capability.
Incident Cleanup Reserve $150K/yr
[#15] Annual reserve for cleanup, repair, decontamination, and unexpected physical damage from anomalous events.
Supplies And Consumables $61K/yr
[#4, #8, #10, #13, #21, #23] Consumables and calibration: medical consumables, backup media rotation/storage, sensor calibration, EEG disposable caps/gels, PPE, periodic secure-comm hardware servicing.
Facilities Maintenance $45K/yr
[#3] HVAC, power, certification and general maintenance of the secure test chamber and shielding; includes modest digital hardware refresh allowances.
Training And Sops Recurring $30K/yr
[#16] Recurrent training, SOP refreshers, memetic-awareness drills, and evacuation exercises.
Mtf Deployment Costs $20K/yr
[#7] Expected per-deployment costs aggregated as an annual estimate for occasional deployments.
Psych Care Reserve $20K/yr
[#17] Psychological screening, follow-up care, counseling and subject compensation reserve.
Software Maintenance $20K/yr
[#2] Ongoing maintenance/patching/formal verification costs for the encrypted access-control and test-wrapper software.
Logistics And Transport $15K/yr
[#24] Transportation of subjects/equipment for off-site testing and secure transfer logistics (expected modest annual usage).
Digital Containment Maintenance $5K/yr
[#1] Annual maintenance, integrity checks, and periodic refresh of air-gapped storage and hardware crypto modules.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.3M/yr
88.0% probability / year
Normal year with routine testing, scheduled maintenance, training, and no major incidents.
routine_testing no_major_anomalous_events
🚨 Minor Incident $3.5M/yr
10.0% probability / year +$200K vs baseline
A limited anomalous physical event occurs during a test requiring local repairs, a single MTF deployment, extra medical care, and legal/PR activity.
minor_physical_anomaly single_deployment localized_repairs
🚨 Major Breach $4.5M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.2M vs baseline
Severe anomalous event causing serious damage, subject fatality or large-scale exposure requiring major repairs, extensive legal action, and increased containment posture.
fatality large_scale_damage public_exposure
👥 Personnel 9 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#6, #7] Two Level-2 guards assigned to testing sessions; MTF agents on-call as part of standby arrangements.
Research Scientist 2 [#22] On-site research staff supporting controlled experiments and data analysis (salaries included in staff_wages).
Cybersecurity / Monitoring 1 [#9] Continuous monitoring, logging, and forensics for the mainframe and test-wrapper.
Site Medic 1 [#5] On-call medical professional present during tests for acute physiological events.
Neuropsychologist 1 [#5] Neuro/psych researcher available during testing and for follow-up assessment.
Engineer / Maintenance 1 [#3, #16] Maintenance and facility engineering support for chamber, shielding, and equipment; participates in drills.
Administrative Staff 1 [#11, #18] Administrative and compliance support for IRB-style oversight, scheduling, legal coordination and cover operations.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges, allowing a mid-confidence estimate. Significant optional items (on-site MRI) and broad cost ranges introduce uncertainty, so figures are order-of-magnitude estimates.
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