SCP-3278 — SCP-3278 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-3278 Euclid ~ medium confidence

SCP-3278

Expected annual

$22.9M

One-time setup

$82.0M

Annual recurring

$21.6M

Personnel

Initial capital outlay is dominated by a sealed concrete dome, vessel purchase/fit-out, shipboard BSL buildout and contingency reserves (~$82M one-time). Annual operating costs for fuel, vessel operations, crew and security drive recurring expenses (~$21.65M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $82.0M

Vessel Purchase And Conversion $25.0M

[#6] Purchase and conversion of a permanent moored vessel/platform into habitation, ops, lab space and helipad/crane.

Contingency Reserve $20.0M

[#24] Program-level contingency/reserve fund for catastrophic replacement, buyouts, or major coverups.

Facilities $9.5M

[#1, #2] Reinforced marine-grade concrete dome construction and underwater installation plus site survey, geotechnical boring, bathymetry, ROV surveys, permitting and seabed prep.

Bsl Shipboard Buildout $6.0M

[#10] Shipboard BSL-3/4 equivalent contained lab buildout, negative-pressure systems, autoclaves, sealed transfers.

Surge Fund $5.0M

[#30] Pre-funded surge account / rapid-response package reserve to cover large-event retrieval and coverup costs.

Rovs And Submersibles $4.0M

[#11] Purchase of inspection ROVs/AUVs, work-class ROV and a manned submersible; spare units and winches.

Equipment $3.0M

[#3] Seafloor-mounted diesel water-heater furnaces procurement & installation (three units) and associated subsea hardware.

Energy Capacity Upgrades $1.5M

[#5] One-time capacity upgrades: parallel units, stronger generators, fuel-handling upgrades to cover heating inefficiencies.

Mooring Hardware $1.5M

[#7] High-capacity anchors, chains, mooring lines, installation costs for permanent mooring field.

Saturation Diving System $1.5M

[#12] Saturation diving system, recompression chambers, mixed-gas supplies and associated hardware.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $1.0M

[#17] Initial sequencing, proteomics and lab equipment for research if built locally (initial reagents/instruments).

Medical And Quarantine Setup $1.0M

[#19] On-site isolation wards, medevac contract setup, PPE stockpile and emergency med capability setup.

Environmental Monitoring Equipment $700K

[#13] Initial modelling tools, thermal plume sensors, chemical sensors, mitigation equipment (chillers/curtains).

Comms And Surveillance Equipment $600K

[#14] Satcom, acoustic sensors, high-resolution cameras, AIS management and secure uplink hardware.

Redundant Heating And Shutdown $500K

[#29] Redundant heaters, fail-safes and emergency shutdown systems to prevent uncontrolled temperature changes.

It Infrastructure $400K

[#27] Hardened servers, encrypted storage, classified research IT buildout and secure backups.

Decontamination Systems $300K

[#20] Autoclaves, effluent treatment, incineration/deep-burial prep and decon equipment for recovered material.

Spare Stock $300K

[#21] One-time stock of critical spares (pumps, seals, sacrificial anodes, HPUs) for remote offshore reliability.

Cover Company Setup $200K

[#23] Initial setup of shell corporations, legal entity formation and cover-company overhead.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $21.6M/yr

Staff Wages $5.0M/yr

[#8, #9] Vessel crew, engineers, cooks, medics, maintenance staff and core scientific staff salaries with rotation and hazard pay.

Vessel Operations $4.0M/yr

[#6] Annual operating costs for a purchased/converted vessel (crew rotation costs, maintenance, port fees).

Supplies And Consumables $1.5M/yr

[#4] Continuous diesel fuel supply for heaters (baseline consumption estimate).

Exclusion Zone Patrols $1.5M/yr

[#15] Dedicated maritime patrols, contracted security vessels or payments to third parties to enforce 5 km exclusion.

Security Personnel $1.5M/yr

[#22] Offshore armed security teams, training rotations and contingency armed response availability.

Bsl Operations $1.0M/yr

[#10] Ongoing operations for shipboard BSL lab: consumables, certifications, waste handling and secure transfers.

Refurbishment Reserve $1.0M/yr

[#25] Annualized reserve for periodic major refurbishments / dome lifecycle replacements.

Research And Monitoring $800K/yr

[#17] Ongoing sequencing, consumables, bioinformatics, long-term experiments and sample analysis.

Extra Fuel Or Power $750K/yr

[#5] Additional ongoing fuel/power costs if capacity upgrades are used to overcome inefficiencies.

Rovs Maintenance $500K/yr

[#11] Annual ops and maintenance for ROVs/AUVs and submersible systems.

Saturation Diving Ops $500K/yr

[#12] Operations, mixed-gas supplies, medical staff and maintenance for diving support.

Spares And Maintenance $500K/yr

[#21] Annual spares replacement, pumps, seals, engines and planned maintenance for remote equipment.

Legal And Diplomatic $500K/yr

[#23] Ongoing legal counsel, diplomatic payments, MOUs and cover-company running costs.

Cover Story And Legal $400K/yr

[#16] Public-relations, social-media interception, misinformation campaigns and routine cover-story work.

Medical Operations $400K/yr

[#19] On-going medic staffing, isolation ward ops, medevac contracts and long-term staff health monitoring.

Carcass Recovery $300K/yr

[#18] Standby budget for routine carcass retrieval/disposal logistics; surge events budgeted separately.

Environmental Monitoring Ops $250K/yr

[#13] Continuous monitoring of thermal plume, chemistry, mitigation operations and modelling updates.

Public Payments $200K/yr

[#28] Compensation and hush payments to local fishermen/communities to prevent reporting.

Large Event Surge Standby $200K/yr

[#30] Annual standby contribution to a surge-response fund for large falls; per-event costs handled in scenarios.

Mooring Maintenance $150K/yr

[#7] Periodic inspection, replacement and maintenance of anchors, chains and mooring lines.

Comms Service $150K/yr

[#14] Satellite uplink fees, secure comms, data transmission and AIS management services.

Decontamination Operations $150K/yr

[#20] Consumables and operation of autoclaves, effluent treatment and waste sterilization.

Training $150K/yr

[#26] Regular drills, certifications, lost-opportunity costs for rotating staff and safety training.

It Operations $150K/yr

[#27] Ongoing classified IT operations, backups and cybersecurity.

Redundant Heating Maintenance $100K/yr

[#29] Maintenance and testing of redundant heating and emergency shutdown systems.

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

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Logistics And Transport $0/yr

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⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $21.6M/yr

60.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations, no major fall events or public incidents.

no significant SCP-3278-2 fall routine maintenance and operations

🚨 Minor Incident $22.6M/yr

30.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline

Small fall event or localized surge requiring extra recovery, lab hours and security augmentation.

small SCP-3278-2 fall within 4 km need for extra ROV time and disposal

🚨 Large Fall Event $27.6M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$6.0M vs baseline

Major fall (dozens–hundreds of instances) requiring full rapid-response, expanded storage, extra security and large disposal operations.

large SCP-3278-2 meteor fall (22–295 instances) mass retrieval and extended BSL processing

🚨 Major Breach Public Exposure $46.6M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$25.0M vs baseline

Public exposure or catastrophic containment failure requiring buyouts, legal crisis management, replacement infrastructure and emergency coverup.

public discovery / media exposure catastrophic containment breach

👥 Personnel 36 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	12	[#9] Marine biologists, geneticists, microbiologists and data analysts (core team).
Vessel Crew / Support	18	[#8] Vessel engineers, deck crew, cooks and general operations staff (rotational).
Research Technician	6	[#9] Lab technicians and sample handlers supporting BSL operations and on-board processing.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges but key drivers (site depth, chosen vessel strategy, heating inefficiencies and event frequency) are uncertain; estimates use mid-range assumptions.

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