SCP-3608 — SCP-3608 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-3608 Unknown ~ medium confidence

SCP-3608

Expected annual

$13.6M

One-time setup

$61.2M

Annual recurring

$13.1M

Personnel

One-time startup costs are dominated by land, reinforced containment construction and large reserve funds (approx. $61.2M one-time). Recurring operations (security, scientific staff, R&D and maintenance) are the main annual drivers (~$13.1M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $61.2M

Insurance Reserve $25.0M

[#23] Liquid insurance/contingency reserve to cover catastrophic containment failure, settlements, rapid evacuation and relocation costs.

Facilities $15.0M

[#2] Reinforced concrete containment wing, control room, decon airlock, living quarters, HVAC and structural works for 15 m controlled buffer; Swiss construction costs.

Containment Failure Reserve $10.0M

[#30] Separate rapid-response crisis fund earmarked for PR control, emergency contractors, expedited evacuation and mass payouts (expendable reserve).

Land Acquisition $3.0M

[#1] Purchase/long-term lease of rural parcel (~1–5 ha near Nürensdorf) plus legal fees to obscure ownership under cover entities.

Equipment $2.0M

[#3, #4, #5, #11, #12, #17] Perimeter hardware, redundant visible/IR/thermal cameras, on-site NAS/video hardware, generator/UPS purchase, initial hardened communications, initial armored/secure vehicles and outfitting.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $1.8M

[#13, #21] Initial R&D program funding and purchase of specialized (fiber/fiber‑coupled/passive) sensors and research instruments to attempt unmanned / hardened sensing.

Community Buyouts $1.5M

[#16] Purchase/long-term lease and buyouts of nearby properties and initial goodwill payments to mitigate local inquiries.

Emergency Initial Equipment $1.0M

[#10] Dedicated emergency team equipment, SAR/Hazmat initial equipment, medevac contract setup and training costs (initial component).

Disposal Initial Retrofits $1.0M

[#25] Initial budget for disposal equipment, contaminated instrument replacement and one-time containment retrofit contingency.

Legal Cover Setup $500K

[#15] Initial cover story development, permits, civilian cover establishment and initial legal compliance/setup fees.

Environmental Survey Initial $200K

[#29] Baseline geotechnical, soil and groundwater surveys and initial environmental assessments.

Training Initial $150K

[#22] Initial security/science training program setup, simulation drills and background vetting costs.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $13.1M/yr

Staff Wages $5.0M/yr

[#6, #7, #8] Ongoing wages, benefits and overtime for 24/7 armed guards, supervisors, Site Director/command staff and scientific/technical personnel.

Research And Monitoring $3.8M/yr

[#13, #20, #26] Recurring R&D/iterative testing costs, archival research/data analysis personnel, compute and software licenses and long-term multidisciplinary research program funding.

Logistics And Transport $550K/yr

[#17, #27] Fleet operations (fuel, maintenance), secure transport, staff rotation travel, housing stipends and relocation/rotation costs.

Facilities Maintenance $500K/yr

[#19] Annual maintenance of concrete shell, HVAC filters, camera housings, fences, roads, snow removal and minor construction repairs (~2–5% of build cost).

Emergency Response $500K/yr

[#10] Contracted medevac/helibase readiness, hazmat teams, regular drills and trauma supplies (recurring readiness costs).

Human Subjects Program $500K/yr

[#14] Baseline contingency budget for hazard pay, compensation, life-insurance and legal/admin costs related to occasional manned testing.

Cover Story And Legal $475K/yr

[#15, #28] Ongoing legal counsel, liaison payments, cover-story maintenance, FOIA/PR response and deniability administration.

Medical Services $300K/yr

[#9] Pre-employment psychological screening, ongoing mental-health services, on-site medics and evacuation protocols.

Disposal And Replacement $300K/yr

[#25] Recurring budget for disposing contaminated instruments, replacing equipment lost to anomalous failure modes and retrofits as needed.

Supplies And Consumables $200K/yr

[#18] Day-to-day consumables, PPE, batteries, cleaning supplies and food for contracted staff.

Communications And Cybersecurity $200K/yr

[#12] SOC monitoring, secure telecoms maintenance, encrypted links, intrusion monitoring and cybersecurity operations.

Community Payments $150K/yr

[#16] Ongoing goodwill payments, local mitigation and minor compensations to nearby residents.

Data Sovereignty Compliance $150K/yr

[#24] Administrative overhead for legal compliance, filings, inspections handling and fines contingency while maintaining cover.

Backup Power Maintenance $125K/yr

[#11] Fuel, maintenance and testing costs for diesel generators, UPS upkeep and grid bills for continuous critical power loads.

Training And Vetting $100K/yr

[#22] Recurrent staff training, drills, background checks and clearance renewals.

Video Storage And Archival $100K/yr

[#5] Ongoing storage expansion, off-site encrypted backups, tape/air-gapped archives and archival maintenance for 24/7 high-resolution streams.

Environmental Monitoring $100K/yr

[#29] Recurring baseline and repeat soil, groundwater and seismic surveys and expert review for liability concerns.

Sensor Consumables $75K/yr

[#21] Consumables, recalibration and replacement parts for specialized fiber/fiber-coupled/passive sensors.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $13.1M/yr

88.0% probability / year

Normal uneventful year: operations, scheduled research, maintenance and routine training with no major incidents.

routine_operations scheduled_research no_major_incidents

🚨 Minor Incident $13.9M/yr

10.0% probability / year +$750K vs baseline

Limited containment/equipment failures or a localized exposure requiring repairs, short-term medical treatment, and expanded PR/legal activity.

equipment_failure limited_exposure localized_media_report

🚨 Major Breach $33.1M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$20.0M vs baseline

Large containment failure or public exposure that requires use of contingency reserves, mass medical/psychological response, PR buyouts and legal settlements.

large_scale_exposure mass_psychological_casualties public_disclosure

👥 Personnel 62 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	20	[#6] Frontline 24/7 armed guard presence (multiple shifts).
Security Supervisor	4	[#6] Supervisory staff for guard rotations and site security management.
Research Scientist	15	[#8] Physicists, anomaly specialists, psychologists and senior scientists for experiments and interpretation.
Research Technician / Engineer	5	[#8, #13] Technicians and engineers to maintain instruments, run tests and support R&D.
Site Director / Executive Staff	2	[#7] Site Director and deputy with on-call obligations and travel allowances.
Medical Officer / Psychologist	2	[#9] On-site medical and mental-health capability, screening and post-expedition care.
Engineer / Maintenance	3	[#11, #19] Building, power systems and HVAC maintenance staff.
CCTV/IT Operator / Archivist	4	[#4, #5, #20] Video monitoring, archival maintenance and data analysts.
Emergency Response / SAR Personnel	4	[#10] Dedicated emergency team and medevac/contracted responders for site incidents.
Administrative / Liaison Staff	3	[#15, #28] Administrative support, legal liaison and cover-story management.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges allowing a reasoned estimate, but large uncertainties remain due to anomalous behavior (unpredictable failure modes, potential human-subject program scale and reserve sizing), so confidence is medium.

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