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SCP-3798 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-3798
Expected annual
$162K
One-time setup
$120K
Annual recurring
$160K
Personnel
3
Initial, one-time costs are approximately $120,400 driven by building/retrofitting a containment cell, initial monitoring equipment, and contingency funds; ongoing annual costs are approximately $159,725 driven primarily by staff wages, continuous monitoring/storage, and maintenance.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $120K
Facilities $87K
[#1, #2] Containment cell build/retrofit and HVAC/climate-control installation for tape preservation (new-build midrange + HVAC install).
Equipment $18K
[#3, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, #12, #13, #19] Initial hardware purchase: UPS, CCTV camera & mount, NVR, SDR + antenna/preamp, recording workstation, secure server configuration hardware, capture card (digitization hardware), spare VCR & parts, and archival safe/box.
Incident Contingency Fund $10K
[#20] One-time contingency fund for rapid response, mobilization, or special countermeasures if anomalous signals require immediate action.
Legal And Cover Initial $4K
[#21] Initial legal/cover-story creation, administrative setup, and one-time amnestic/PR preparation allocation.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $2K
[#10, #12] Initial signal-processing/software licenses and archivist labor/verification costs for first-time digitization/archival setup.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $160K/yr
Staff Wages $135K/yr
[#14, #15, #16, #17] Ongoing allocated salaries: primary researcher (allocated FTE), IT/sysadmin support, security allocation (institutional guard overhead), and monitoring/translation labor.
Research And Monitoring $9K/yr
[#5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #22] Power consumption, camera maintenance, NVR/storage backups, SDR maintenance/tuning, workstation storage/backups, software support/updates, data-security maintenance/audits, ongoing archivist verification, and compliance/audit costs.
Facilities Maintenance $5K/yr
[#1, #2, #3, #4] Ongoing maintenance of containment cell/HVAC, UPS battery replacement allocation, and allocated share of generator/facility redundancy upkeep.
Logistics And Transport $3K/yr
[#18] Secure transport and chain-of-custody budget for occasional moves, digitization transfers, or repairs.
Cover Story And Legal $3K/yr
[#21] Ongoing cover-story upkeep, legal/admin costs, and incident amnestic administration budgeting.
Incident Training Readiness $2K/yr
[#20] Ongoing training, drills, and readiness costs related to incident response for hazardous signal content.
Insurance Liability Allocation $2K/yr
[#23] Per-object allocation toward institutional insurance / liability management.
Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr
[#13, #24] Consumables and maintenance for VCRs (cleaning kits, belts) and miscellaneous consumables (cables, labels, cleaning supplies).
Secure Storage Allocation $125/yr
[#19] Annual allocation for secure archival slot, humidity-controlled storage allocation for original tape.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $160K/yr
94.9% probability / year
Normal year with continuous monitoring, routine maintenance, and no major incidents.
continuous_monitoring routine_maintenance no_incidents
🚨 Minor Incident $185K/yr
5.0% probability / year +$25K vs baseline
Short-term incident requiring immediate response: overtime, temporary extra staff, targeted amnestics/containment actions, and additional storage/analysis.
unexpected_memetic_content temporary_containment_response overtime_and_equipment_rentals
🚨 Catastrophic Escalation $1.2M/yr
0.1% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Severe anomalous escalation (memetic outbreak, broadcast propagation, or requirement for large dedicated facility/upgrades) requiring major capital and operational expenditures.
widespread_memetic_effects requirement_for_specialized_facility large-scale_amnestic_program
👥 Personnel 3 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 1 [#14] Primary researcher responsible for reviewing translations, supervising containment protocols.
IT / System Administrator 1 [#15] Technical support for SDR, recording workstation, NVR, backups, and security patches.
Monitoring Technician / Translator 1 [#17] Human verification of automated Morse decoding, logging, and flagging anomalous content.
📋 Confidence Notes
Core equipment and staffing needs are well-described in the notes (medium confidence). Uncertainty remains around anomaly-driven escalation probabilities and long-tail containment escalations (items #20 and #25), so costs for rare catastrophic outcomes are poorly constrained.
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