SCP-3723 — SCP-3723 | Cost Breakdown

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $5.4M

Contingency Reserve $2.0M

[#19] Emergency containment / breach remediation reserve fund (kept available as one-time capital reserve).

Cremation And Disposal $900K

[#11] Heavy-lift, industrial incineration/smelting of instruments and ash dispersal; estimate midpoint of $300k–$1.5M.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $550K

[#13, #14] Biobank setup and initial laboratory equipment/sequencing/histology capital costs.

Necropsy And Sequencing $520K

[#10] Full pathological workups, histology and sequencing for 13 specimens (estimated midpoint of $260k–$780k).

Equipment $300K

[#18] Security/remote monitoring installation (sonar buoys, cameras, sensors) cost estimate included here.

Legal Fees Initial $300K

[#16] Incident legal fees, settlements and initial witness handling (estimated $200k–$500k likely).

Pr One Time $200K

[#17] Public relations, cover-story fabrication and initial media management (one-time component).

Emergency Response $150K

[#1] Initial emergency response: dive-team mobilization, emergency vessel day-rates, fuel, overtime and incident command (first 72 hours).

Diplomatic And Interagency $150K

[#24] Diplomatic / interagency coordination and associated one-time fees/payments.

Permitting And Assessments $125K

[#12] Environmental permits and impact assessments related to euthanasia/cremation.

Decontamination One Time $100K

[#21] Decontamination and hazardous waste disposal associated with the operation (one-time component).

Witness Containment Initial $100K

[#23] Initial witness containment / relocation / NDA payments for discovered divers (one-time).

Facilities $0

[] No new permanent facility construction performed for the decommissioned outcome.

Vessel Purchase $0

[#2] Vessel purchase option noted but not exercised in the decommissioned outcome (purchase range $2M–$20M).

Sea Pen Construction $0

[#3] Sea-pen/moored enclosure construction was a potential one-time cost if live containment chosen; not used here.

Onshore Aquarium Retrofit $0

[#4] Onshore tank/retrofit build was a potential option (est. $10M–$50M); not executed for decommissioned outcome.

Parasite Removal Initial $0

[#8] Initial surgical removal/treatment line-item present in notes (est. $200k–$600k) but not used—entities were decommissioned instead.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.4M/yr

Research And Monitoring $400K/yr

[#9, #12, #25] Ongoing parasite monitoring, environmental post-disposal monitoring and multi-year oceanographic surveillance (combined recurring monitoring programs).

Administrative Overhead $300K/yr

[#26] Program management, finance, compliance and HR overhead budgeted as recurring administrative costs.

Insurance And Liability $200K/yr

[#20] Annual insurance and liability premiums for residual marine operations and program exposure.

Staff Wages $190K/yr

[#5, #6, #26] Baseline staffing for decommissioned monitoring: small program director/research/tech/security complement; larger full-containment staffing (note #5,#6) not active in baseline.

Supplies And Consumables $60K/yr

[#14] Modest recurring consumables for archival/sample handling and monitoring; large ongoing lab consumable budgets (note #14) assumed inactive in baseline.

Logistics And Transport $50K/yr

[#2, #18] Limited annual vessel days / transport and modest patrol logistics after decommissioning (charter/vessel-days reserved but not full-time).

Biobank Storage $50K/yr

[#13] Secure sample storage and classified data archiving annual costs.

Security Patrols And Maintenance $50K/yr

[#6, #18] Periodic patrol vessels and sensor maintenance to ensure no return of anomalous material.

Cover Story And Legal $40K/yr

[#16, #17, #23] Ongoing PR monitoring, legal follow-up and minor witness support in subsequent years.

Psychological Aftercare $40K/yr

[#22] Counseling and staff aftercare services for personnel exposed during the incident and short-term follow-up.

Decontamination Maintenance $30K/yr

[#21] Ongoing hazardous-waste handling and decontamination maintenance at modest scale post-operation.

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

[#3, #4] [] No active onshore or sea-pen facility to maintain in the decommissioned baseline.

Vessel Charter Per Year $0/yr

[#2] Vessel charter/day-rate option exists for active containment (est. $15k–$100k/day) but not used in the decommissioned baseline.

Sea Pen Maintenance Per Year $0/yr

[#3] Sea-pen annual maintenance (est. $50k–$200k) applicable only if sea-pen used; baseline is decommissioned.

Anomalous Feeding $0/yr

[#7] Feeding costs for live containment noted ($0.85M–$3.8M/yr) — not applicable to the decommissioned baseline.

Lab Consumables $0/yr

[#14] Recurring lab consumables and maintenance for active research (range cited in notes) are minimal in the decommissioned baseline.

Research Program $0/yr

[#15] Long-term behavioral/intelligence research program costs are not active in the decommissioned baseline.

Witness Monitoring $0/yr

[#23] Long-term witness relocation/monitoring recurring costs if implemented; baseline assumes limited-duration support (initial covered one-time).

Post Operation Surveillance $0/yr

[#25] Included in research_and_monitoring (#25) for baseline recurring surveillance programs.

Opportunity And Reputational $0/yr

[#27] Indirect opportunity/reputational costs acknowledged but not budgeted as an annual line item.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.4M/yr

95.0% probability / year

Decommissioned outcome (as in the file): one-time disposal completed; ongoing monitoring, insurance, limited staff and administration constitute normal year.

decommissioned_and_disposed multi-year_monitoring limited_staffing

🚨 Contain Live $3.5M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$2.1M vs baseline

Facility and operations for live containment (sea-pen or onshore tank) kept running to study SCP-3723 instances.

pod_kept_alive onshore_tank_or_sea_pen full_time_staff_and_feed

🚨 Major Breach $5.0M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$3.6M vs baseline

Significant incident requiring emergency remediation, large-scale legal/PR response, additional necropsy/disposal, and extensive patrols/sensor replacement.

containment_breach mass_public_exposure large_remediation_ops

👥 Personnel 5 total

Role	Count	Notes
Site Director / Executive Staff	1	Program director / manager included in staff_wages for ongoing monitoring (~$60k/yr of the staff budget).
Research Scientist	1	Part-time researcher responsible for sample review and coordination (~$50k/yr portion of staff_wages).
Engineer / Maintenance / ROV Operator	2	Technical staff for ROV surveys, sample handling and maintenance (combined ~$60k/yr portion of staff_wages).
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1	Minimal on-site/contract security presence for monitoring and asset protection (part-time allocation ~$20k/yr).

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide broad ranges and two distinct operational modes (decommissioned vs. live containment). One-time disposal costs are reasonably well-bounded; recurring estimates depend on whether live containment was chosen, introducing moderate uncertainty.