SCP-3501 — SCP-3501 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-3501 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-3501

Expected annual

$2.0M

One-time setup

$3.0M

Annual recurring

$2.0M

Personnel

Initial one-time setup and covert recovery drive upfront costs (~$3.0M) while ongoing annual costs are dominated by specialized personnel, R&D and containment readiness (~$2.0M/yr). Main drivers: memetics staff and R&D, security staffing, and contingency/incident readiness.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $3.0M

Covert Exfiltration $600K

[#1] Covert international removal operation: planning, local operatives, transport, customs forgery/bribes, crating and secure freight to Site 90.

Facilities $585K

[#2, #3] Purpose-built containment cell construction and on-site reassembly/structural shoring and stabilization after removal.

Equipment $465K

[#4, #6, #7, #8, #9] Initial install of HVAC/humidity/filtration, access control hardware, backup generator/UPS, hardened external surveillance, and robotic proxy hardware.

Decommissioning Fund $300K

[#25] Long-term decommissioning / demolition / remediation contingency reserve.

Contingency Reserve One Time $300K

[#26] One-time portion of contingency reserve for unmodelled operational unknowns (recommended portion of the 15% reserve).

Per Experiment Activation Cost $200K

[#14] One-time cost per sanctioned human experiment (safety teams, psych evals, medical & legal readiness).

Local Community Diplomacy $125K

[#21] Iran-side contingency funds for academic buy-off, archives work, or diplomatic/legal smoothing if traces remain.

Training And Ppe Development $100K

[#17] One-time SOP development and procurement/design of memetic PPE and specialized training program setup.

Legacy Suppression Initial $100K

[#20] Initial suppression/legacy-insertion budget to manage public traces discovered on acquisition.

Incident Activation Cost $100K

[#23] Per-activation rapid-deploy containment activation cost (equipment, quarantine, deployment).

Cultural Consulting One Time $40K

[#15] One-time Persian-language / folklorist consulting during move/initial assessment.

Artifact Conservation Initial $25K

[#16] Initial conservation treatment for internal artifacts (books, hookahs, ceramics) following transit.

Secure Archival Initial $25K

[#22] Analog/secure paper archive creation and memetic-safe transcription infrastructure (initial).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $0

[]

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.0M/yr

Staff Wages $722K/yr

[#10, #11, #12] Security staffing (4 guards), site maintenance/techs (1–2 FTE), and memetics/cognitohazard research team salaries.

Research And Monitoring $500K/yr

[#13] R&D budget for memetic countermeasures, shielding, information-safe recording techniques and iterative experiments.

Cover Story And Legal $210K/yr

[#19, #20] Internal legal team allocation, NDAs, containment paperwork plus ongoing external monitoring and small disinformation/cover operations.

Contingency Reserve Recurring $150K/yr

[#26] Recurring portion of the recommended 15% contingency reserve to cover memetic surprises, equipment failures, diplomatic blowback.

Logistics And Transport $120K/yr

[#23] Incident response & rapid-deploy containment team readiness and transport logistics costs.

Cultural Consulting $90K/yr

[#15] Ongoing Persian-language / folklorist work to monitor and manage story propagation and craft cover narratives.

Facilities Maintenance $85K/yr

[#5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #24] HVAC operation & calibration, access control maintenance, generator fuel & maintenance, surveillance maintenance, robotic maintenance, and utilities/site overhead.

Psychological Services $40K/yr

[#18] Ongoing psychological screening, debriefing and therapy for staff exposed or working near SCP-3501.

Training $30K/yr

[#17] Annual memetic-safety training, SOP refreshers, drills and staff psychological inoculation protocols.

Supplies And Consumables $16K/yr

[#16, #22] Ongoing conservation supplies, pest control, replacement test consumables (dates/pistachios), and archival consumables.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.0M/yr

92.0% probability / year

Normal year with no major incidents or sanctioned human experiment activations; containment maintained and routine R&D/training continues.

no_incidents no_sanctioned_human_entries

🚨 Minor Incident $2.3M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline

Small local memetic leakage or discovery requiring a single rapid response activation, targeted suppression and diplomacy.

local_story_spread small_public_exposure one_activation

🚨 Experiment Activation $2.3M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline

A sanctioned human-entry experiment is approved and executed, incurring per-experiment activation expenses above baseline.

O5_sanctioned_entry high_safety_team_requirements

🚨 Major Breach $3.3M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$1.3M vs baseline

Significant memetic propagation or public exposure requiring large-scale response, diplomacy, extended suppression and possible decommissioning actions.

widespread_story_adoption multi-community_exposure require_decommissioning

👥 Personnel 9 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	4	[#10] Four rotating guards to maintain two-person coverage and memetic-safety trained.
Engineer / Maintenance	2	[#11] Site maintenance and technical support staff (HVAC, electrical, containment hardware).
Research Scientist / Memeticist	3	[#12, #13] Senior memeticist + 1–2 research assistants to study propagation and maintain protocols; R&D staff funded under research budget.

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates are order-of-magnitude and based on analyst ranges plus midpoints; memetic behavior, experiment frequency, and diplomatic contingencies are uncertain, so confidence is medium rather than high.

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