SCP-3171 — SCP-3171 | Cost Breakdown

Read on SCP Wiki ↗

SCP-3171 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-3171

Expected annual

$1.3M

One-time setup

$899K

Annual recurring

$1.2M

Personnel

One-time setup and capital costs are moderate (~$0.9M) driven by site infrastructure, power, and contingency reserves; annual recurring costs are dominated by personnel (security, monitoring, and research) and programmatic support, totaling roughly $1.22M/year.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $899K

Containment Expansion Contingency $250K

[#32] Recommended one-time contingency planning budget for acquiring adjacent land or large-scale containment if spores spread.

Contingency Emergency Reserve $200K

[#27] One-time recommended rapid-response / emergency fund reserve for containment contingencies.

Equipment $184K

[#5, #7, #12, #15, #19, #21, #22] Camera system, omnidirectional speakers, vehicles/ATV/trailers, portable decontamination hardware, cold-storage freezer, IT/server hardware, communications hardware (one-time capital purchases and installations).

Facilities $138K

[#4, #8, #9] Perimeter installation, power system installation, and prefab guardhouse / light-lab buildout (structural/installation work).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $85K

[#18] Laboratory capital equipment for on-site testing (microscope, centrifuge, PCR, etc.).

Legal Cover Setup $28K

[#23] One-time legal/cover-story setup, permits, and initial PR/legal positioning.

Sop Development Initial $15K

[#28] Initial SOP development and initial training rollout.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.2M/yr

Staff Wages $805K/yr

[#10, #11, #13] Security guards (on-site, multiple shifts), remote monitoring operators, and allocated researcher payroll for weekly field visits.

Specialized Research Programs $100K/yr

[#26] Pilot computational/AI research or small dedicated programs to study and ethically leverage SCP-3171 abilities.

Administrative Overhead $100K/yr

[#30] Pro-rated institutional overhead for procurement, HR, accounting and site administration.

Research And Monitoring $31K/yr

[#17, #19] Routine laboratory analysis allocation and cold-storage power/monitoring costs for sample biobanking.

Contingency Fund Topup $25K/yr

[#27] Annual topping-up of emergency/rapid-response reserve.

Community Liaison Payments $20K/yr

[#24] Local community payments, employment programs, or land-use agreements to maintain cooperation.

Insurance And Risk Management $20K/yr

[#29] Insurance premiums and risk-management policies for property and personnel liability.

Logistics And Transport $16K/yr

[#12, #16] Vehicle fuel & maintenance plus sample chain-of-custody packaging and secure transport.

Cover Story And Legal $15K/yr

[#23] Ongoing legal retainers, PR support and cover-story maintenance.

Ethics Oversight $12K/yr

[#25] Ethics review, welfare oversight, and external consultant time for sapient-subject monitoring.

Facilities Maintenance $8K/yr

[#9] Utilities, minor building maintenance, and basic site upkeep for guardhouse/building utilities.

Biohazard Waste Disposal $8K/yr

[#20] Contracted hazardous waste services or onsite disposal costs for contaminated PPE and sample waste.

It Storage And Bandwidth $8K/yr

[#21] Cloud/local storage, bandwidth, and secure archival for continuous video/audio logging.

Supplies And Consumables $6K/yr

[#14] Field PPE, disposable sampling consumables, sample vials, gloves, disinfectants and general consumables.

Grounds Maintenance $6K/yr

[#3] Access road upkeep, mowing paths, invasive species control, and erosion repairs to maintain habitat containment.

Training And Sop Refresher $6K/yr

[#28] Annual refresher training and SOP updates for guards and researchers.

Land Ownership Leasing $5K/yr

[#1] Ongoing recordation, title maintenance, local fees and legal upkeep for Foundation ownership/leasing of the ~9,000 m² savanna.

Camera Maintenance $5K/yr

[#6] Camera repairs, replacements, firmware updates, and calibration.

Population Management Reserve $5K/yr

[#31] Baseline monitoring and small reserve for population-management research; active interventions are budgeted as contingency/events.

Speaker Maintenance $3K/yr

[#7] Spares, servicing, and upkeep for the 30 remote speakers and control systems.

Power Fuel And Maintenance $3K/yr

[#8] Generator fuel and maintenance for backup power; minor solar/battery servicing not covered in capital.

Decon Consumables $3K/yr

[#15] Chemicals and consumables for portable decontamination stations.

Communications Service $3K/yr

[#22] Cellular/satellite/secure link service fees for remote control of site systems.

Property Taxes $2K/yr

[#2] Annual local property taxes, municipal fees, or payments to park authorities.

Perimeter Security Maintenance $2K/yr

[#4] Maintenance and repairs for buried sensors and low-visibility fencing.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.2M/yr

83.0% probability / year

Normal operational year with no major incidents; routine monitoring, weekly collections, and scheduled maintenance only.

normal operations scheduled maintenance

🚨 Minor Incident $1.3M/yr

10.0% probability / year +$50K vs baseline

Localized event (e.g. accidental spore dispersal within site, single-instance damage to hardware) requiring emergency response and limited remediation.

localized spore release hardware vandalism or failure

🚨 Major Breach $2.2M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline

Spores establish outside the contained savanna requiring land acquisition, large-scale remediation, and intensive containment operations.

spore establishment off-site large-scale containment required

🚨 Research Scale Up $1.5M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline

Decision to expand research program (larger computational exploitation or in-depth biological research) requiring significant additional staffing and equipment.

research breakthrough policy decision to scale program

👥 Personnel 13 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	7	[#10] On-site guards across shifts to monitor cameras and perform patrols.
Remote Monitoring Operator	5	[#11] Dedicated operators to watch camera feeds, control speakers, and log events (24/7 coverage).
Research Scientist	1	[#13] Field researcher(s) assigned to weekly collection protocol (part-time equivalents aggregated).

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges, enabling a reasoned budget; uncertainty remains around low-probability, high-cost contingencies (land acquisition, large-scale remediation) and local labor/tax variability.

← SCP-3170 ↑ All SCPs SCP-3172 →