SCP-3424 — SCP-3424 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-3424 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-3424

Expected annual

$129K

One-time setup

$78K

Annual recurring

$115K

Personnel

One-time setup is moderate (~$77.7k) driven by research instrumentation and initial equipment; annual recurring baseline ~ $115.3k driven mainly by staff wages and ongoing research/monitoring. Optional research scale-up or incidents can raise annual costs substantially.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $78K

Initial Research And Lab Setup $37K

[#12, #14] Neurophysiology/recording equipment and initial software/licenses

Equipment $18K

[#1, #2, #4, #5, #22] Secure display/container, lamp hardware, sensors, surveillance hardware, IT security hardware

Facilities $6K

[#3] Secure short-term containment buildout / vault space adaptation

Human Subjects Setup $5K

[#10] Human-subject protections, legal/ethics review one-time setup

Cover Story One Time $3K

[#17] Initial cover story / OPSEC setup (one-time)

Initial Recovery Transport $2K

[#15] Initial secure transport / recovery costs

Compensation Settlement $2K

[#16] Compensation to original owner / legal settlement (one-time)

Training Development $2K

[#18] Training course development for exposure protocol (one-time)

Incident Response Kit Setup $2K

[#19] Incident response and decontamination kit/setup (one-time)

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $115K/yr

Staff Wages $80K/yr

[#6, #9, #7] Containment technician (pro-rated), researcher/psychologist staffing (part-time), security coverage/escorts

Facilities Maintenance $6K/yr

[#2, #4, #19, #20] Lamp electricity/bulbs, sensor monitoring/maintenance, incident readiness annual costs, long-term maintenance fund

Psychological Followup $5K/yr

[#11] Counseling and psychiatric follow-up for subjects (annualized)

Data Storage And Software $5K/yr

[#5, #14] Surveillance/storage retention costs and recurring software/license support

Research And Monitoring $4K/yr

[#12, #22] Maintenance/calibration for neurophys equipment and IT/security support

Cover Story And Legal $4K/yr

[#17, #10] Ongoing cover story / OPSEC maintenance and human-subject admin/legal ongoing costs

Consumable Experimental Costs $4K/yr

[#21] Participant stipends, test materials, batteries, replacement electrodes

Miscellaneous Overhead $3K/yr

[#23] Administrative overhead, recordkeeping, procurement allocations

Logistics And Transport $2K/yr

[#15] Annualized transport/recovery costs for off-site imaging or moves

Training Refreshers $1K/yr

[#18] Annual refresher training for staff on exposure protocols

Supplies And Consumables $600/yr

[#8] PPE, disinfectants, disposable covers, labels

Advanced Imaging $0/yr

[#13] Optional fMRI/PET imaging (baseline set to 0; included in scale-up scenarios as needed)

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $115K/yr

80.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine maintenance, limited testing, and no major incidents or ambitious imaging studies.

routine_testing no_incidents limited imaging

🚨 Minor Incident $125K/yr

5.0% probability / year +$10K vs baseline

Small containment or subject-related incident requiring incident response, extra counseling, and legal/admin effort.

accidental_overexposure subject_adverse_reaction minor_breach_or_documentation_event

🚨 Research Scale Up $205K/yr

15.0% probability / year +$90K vs baseline

Foundation initiates an ambitious research program (full-time psychologist, repeated neuroimaging sessions, larger subject cohorts).

large_cohort_study regular fMRI/PET imaging full-time research staffing

👥 Personnel 3 total

Role	Count	Notes
Containment Technician	1	[#6] 0.1–0.2 FTE custodial/containment oversight (pro-rated salary included in staff_wages)
Research Scientist / Psychologist	1	[#9] Part-time researcher responsible for experiments and interviews (salary included in staff_wages)
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1	[#7] Routine check-ins and escorted transports (administrative guard time included in staff_wages)

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes are detailed with ranges for each line item, enabling reasonable middle-of-range estimates; uncertainty remains in staffing FTE choices and optional imaging cadence, so confidence is medium.

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