SCP-338 — SCP-338 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-338 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-338

Expected annual

$4.5M

One-time setup

$4.1M

Annual recurring

$4.5M

Personnel

Estimated one-time startup costs are roughly $4.1M driven largely by contingency/reserve and initial R&D/lab setup; ongoing annual operations are ~ $4.48M/yr driven by specialized staff wages, R&D, linguist/translation contracts, and a large cover-up contingency. Major incident years can add hundreds of thousands to multiple millions in emergency/containment expenses.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $4.1M

Contingency Reserve $3.0M

[#24] Long-term containment / escalation contingency reserve (facility upgrades, emergency research, relocation, large-scale response).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $712K

[#19, #20] Initial R&D exploratory program budget and reverse-engineering/replication project (lab instrumentation, microscopy, electronics bench, specialist equipment).

Equipment $146K

[#3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #11, #21, #22] Air-gapped recording hardware, offsite tape library hardware, SDRs/antennas, UPS and generator purchase/installation, monitoring automation/software dev (capital), high-security search equipment, initial media-destruction hardware, rapid-deployment frequency-rescan kit.

Facilities $145K

[#1, #2] Secure containment room build-out and Faraday/EM shielding certification (reinforced room, biometric/tamper sensors, inner vault; EM shielding construction/certification).

Amnestic Inventory $125K

[#12] Initial manufacture/stockpile/inventory of Class C amnestic and associated storage/setup costs.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $4.5M/yr

Research And Monitoring $1.4M/yr

[#16, #19, #23] Sustained R&D programs (recurring research budget), monitoring and intelligence-analysis for predictive channels (89.1), and audio transcription/forensics software licensing and updates.

Coverup Contingency $1.2M/yr

[#13] Recurring contingency pool for personnel termination / cover-up costs, forensic cleanup, falsified records, staged incidents or other legally sensitive expenditures (high-variance line item).

Staff Wages $1.0M/yr

[#9, #10] Salaries/benefits for dedicated team: 6× Level-3 analysts, 1 × Level-4 project lead, 2 × technical support staff, 3 × security officers (24/7 coverage).

Linguists And Translation $325K/yr

[#15] Contract linguists plus any in-house validation costs for multiple languages; variable contractor load assumed.

Cover Story And Legal $112K/yr

[#17] Legal counsel, cover-story maintenance, forged paperwork/front organizations, third-party payments related to records management and cover operations.

Incident On Call Team $90K/yr

[#22] On-call technical team costs for rapid-deployment frequency rescanning and whole-band sweeps.

Psychological Services $50K/yr

[#18] Occupational health, screenings, debriefs, and psychological support for analysts exposed to anomalous broadcasts.

Recruitment And Training $48K/yr

[#14] Ongoing recruitment, vetting, and training for replacement staff due to churn and amnestic/termination procedures.

Facilities Maintenance $40K/yr

[#25] Utilities, climate control, basic facility upkeep and lease overhead for secure data-analysis center.

Ethics Oversight $32K/yr

[#26] Periodic internal review panels, audits, and red-team testing to validate procedures and amnestic use oversight.

Amnestic Replenishment And Administration $30K/yr

[#12] Consumables/replenishment, clinical oversight and administration costs for periodic Class C amnestic use and observation.

Security Systems Maintenance $20K/yr

[#10] Maintenance for cameras, locks, screening hardware and site security systems.

Logistics And Transport $18K/yr

[#27] Secure transport budget for movement of SCP-338, personnel transfers for testing, emergency relocation, and discrete logistics.

Media Destruction Ops $6K/yr

[#21] Recurring operations for secure destruction (incineration/degaussing) and validated chain-of-custody destruction logs.

Offsite Backup Storage $6K/yr

[#4] Offsite/cold-storage backup media vault yearly storage, rotation, and integrity verification.

Generator Fuel Maintenance $5K/yr

[#6] Fuel and maintenance costs for standby generator and UPS upkeep.

Storage Maintenance $2K/yr

[#3] On-site air-gapped server/NAS maintenance, integrity checks, and minor hardware support.

Monitoring Alarm Support $2K/yr

[#8] Ongoing support and minor updates for continuous monitoring automation and alarm software.

Search Equipment Maintenance $2K/yr

[#11] Maintenance/calibration for metal detectors, handheld scanners, and biometric exit systems.

Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr

[#7] Consumables and radio maintenance (batteries, crank parts, small replacement parts, cleaning supplies).

Sdr Maintenance $1K/yr

[#5] Calibration and maintenance for software-defined radios and receivers.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $4.5M/yr

91.0% probability / year

Normal year with no major incidents: standard monitoring, routine R&D and maintenance only.

no incidents standard monitoring and upkeep

🚨 Minor Incident $4.8M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$350K vs baseline

Single localized incident requiring emergency response, limited termination/cover-up, forensic cleanup and short-term R&D.

single personnel termination or exposure localized equipment failure or brief broadcast loss

🚨 Major Breach $6.5M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline

Major containment breach or simultaneous multi-channel failure requiring large-scale emergency response, facility upgrades, extended R&D and large cover-up operations.

simultaneous broadcast loss multiple personnel exposures / coordinated exfiltration escalation requiring facility relocation or major upgrades

👥 Personnel 12 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist / Level-3 Analyst	6	[#9] Core analysts required to interpret broadcasts; rotated to respect exposure limits.
Site Project Lead / Level-4	1	[#9] Senior lead responsible for oversight and Dr. ███████ escalation.
Technical Support / Engineer	2	[#9] On-site technical staff for SDRs, recording systems, and rapid-response equipment.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	3	[#10] 24/7 rotating security coverage for the facility and exit screening.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges for nearly all costs but many items (cover-up, contingency, R&D scale) are high-variance and scenario-dependent; mid-range values were used where ranges existed, producing moderate confidence in order-of-magnitude estimates.

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