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SCP-3605 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-3605
Expected annual
$956K
One-time setup
$765K
Annual recurring
$934K
Personnel
6
One-time setup and archival/digitization buildout are substantial (~$765k), while annual recurring costs are dominated by staff wages (security + researchers), intelligence/OPSEC retainers, and contingency funds (~$933.5k/yr). Main drivers: personnel, ongoing intel/OPSEC, and contingency/rapid-response capacity.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $765K
Research Endowment $350K
[#24] Seed long-term research endowment (midpoint of $250k–$500k range) to fund multi-year program studying astronomical/memetic correlations.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $165K
[#5, #12] Initial controlled-exposure research program seed funding and lab buildout plus training & SOP development for memetic safety and handling protocols.
Equipment $70K
[#2, #4, #6, #7, #18] Microclimate control unit, digitization scanner + workstation + lighting, continuous monitoring cameras/sensors, server hardware for archival, and initial software/license/setup.
Opsec Legal Setup $50K
[#15] One-time OPSEC/legal/PR setup costs (initial legal consults, cover-story preparation, PR contingency planning).
Intel Initiation $30K
[#16] Initial intelligence/counter-cult monitoring initiation costs (HUMINT setup, online monitoring baseline).
Facilities $25K
[#1] Secure high-value containment locker upgrade (vaulted archival locker, reinforced door, tamper sensors, fire-suppression integration and access-control integration).
Forensics Initial $25K
[#11] Initial forensics/pathology/tissue analysis costs already incurred during recovery; retained as one-time historical cost buffer.
Containment Incident Kit $20K
[#13] Dedicated rapid-response kit (PPE, containment cases, transport coolers, emergency lighting, evidence packaging).
Ethical Review Setup $10K
[#23] Setup costs for experimental liability & ethical review board procedures and protocols.
Secure Transport Initial $8K
[#14] Initial secure transportation setup for recovery/transfer (armored transport arrangement, evidence packaging).
Replicas Production $5K
[#19] Production and validation of inert facsimiles/replicas for briefings to avoid use of originals.
Provenance Initial $5K
[#22] Initial public records / archival fees and local liaison expenses to trace provenance.
Archival Storage Materials $2K
[#3] Acid-free sleeves, inert mounting boards, cloth-lined boxes, Mylar covers, gloves and inert archival storage materials for 55 photographs.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $934K/yr
Staff Wages $436K/yr
[#8, #9] Security staffing (2 guards per shift incl. benefits/overhead and rotating containment specialists) plus specialized personnel (one archival conservator and one anomalous researcher, benefits included).
Intelligence Operations $200K/yr
[#16] Ongoing Fifthist/cult monitoring, undercover ops, and threat assessments to prevent coordinated recoveries.
Cover Story And Legal $125K/yr
[#15, #17] Ongoing OPSEC/legal retainer, public affairs tasks, and annual risk reserve/insurance provisioning.
Research And Monitoring $54K/yr
[#4, #5, #23] Scanner & scanning-protocol maintenance, ongoing controlled experiments, and experimental compliance/IRB monitoring.
Containment Contingency Fund $50K/yr
[#13] On-call contingency fund for rapid deployments, vehicles, overtime, and specialists.
Miscellaneous Contingency $25K/yr
[#25] Misc contingency for unexpected repairs, legal fights, equipment replacement, emergency overtime, and one-off tests.
Medical And Psychological $10K/yr
[#10] Routine medical screening, post-exposure exams, and counseling services; $15,000/incident contingency handled in incident scenarios.
Forensics Followup $10K/yr
[#11] Ongoing forensics/pathology follow-up costs for any future samples or incidents.
Facilities Maintenance $7K/yr
[#2, #20] Microclimate energy & maintenance and amortized Site-73 overhead for locker/utilities.
Data Storage And Maintenance $6K/yr
[#6, #7, #18] Secure hosting, encrypted backups and data maintenance for high-resolution imagery and time-series data; includes software maintenance.
Training And Sop $5K/yr
[#12] Annual refresher training, memetic safety briefings, and SOP recertification.
Logistics And Transport $3K/yr
[#14] Recurring secure transport per-transfer estimate (assumes ~1 transfer/year baseline).
Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr
[#3, #21] Archival replacement consumables (acid-free sleeves, gloves) and PPE/handling consumables.
Provenance Followup $1K/yr
[#22] Ongoing archival research fees / local liaison follow-ups for provenance work.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $934K/yr
88.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with no major incidents; standard research and monitoring cadence, routine intel and OPSEC activity.
no breaches standard scheduled experiments routine intel activity
🚨 Minor Incident $1.0M/yr
8.0% probability / year +$75K vs baseline
Localized containment incident or staff exposure requiring medical/forensic response and overtime.
staff exposure to memetic imagery small-scale breach/containment event limited forensic work
🚨 Major Breach $1.7M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$750K vs baseline
Significant containment breach or public exposure requiring extensive recovery, legal defense, large-scale forensic work, and PR/OPSEC response.
public exposure coordinated cult recovery attempt large-scale media/legal action
🚨 Research Breakthrough Requiring Scale Up $1.2M/yr
3.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline
Significant research opportunity/interest leading to expansion of programmatic funding, additional staff, and equipment acquisition.
promising anomalous result decision to scale research granting of multi-year program funds
👥 Personnel 6 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#8] 2 guards on duty for basic coverage (per-shift presence; salaries and benefits included in staff_wages).
Containment Specialist 2 [#8] Rotating containment specialists available for active monitoring/experiments (on-call/rotating team included in staff_wages).
Research Scientist 1 [#9] Anomalous properties researcher/astronomer responsible for experiments and analysis (salary included in staff_wages).
Curator / Conservator 1 [#9] Archival conservator for vintage photographic handling and preservation (salary included in staff_wages).
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line-item estimates for almost all categories, but several items (long-term endowment, intel ops scale, benefits rates) are ranges or assumptions; probabilities for scenarios are expert judgment rather than empirical frequency data.
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