SCP-3834 — SCP-3834 | Cost Breakdown

Read on SCP Wiki ↗

SCP-3834 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-3834

Expected annual

$141K

One-time setup

$1.3M

Annual recurring

$130K

Personnel

Estimated one-time setup and investigation costs are approximately $1,276,000, driven primarily by a large contingency for potential additional anomalies and targeted field investigations; recurring annual costs are modest at ~$129,930/year driven by staff wages, specialist contracting, and archival maintenance.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.3M

Additional Anomalies Contingency $1.0M

[#27] Order-of-magnitude contingency reserve in case additional anomalies are discovered at site requiring large-scale containment, excavation, relocations or remediation.

Paleontological Investigation $50K

[#17] Contracted paleontologists/geologists, field time, travel and lab interpretation for discovery-site verification.

Incident Response Reserve $50K

[#24] Contingency reserve for emergent incident response (medical, quarantine, rapid transport).

Geophysical Survey $40K

[#16] Geophysical surveys and targeted coring (GPR/magnetometry and targeted coring; full deep coring not performed in baseline).

Facilities $21K

[#2, #13] Manufacture/installation of archival lockers and small soundproof listening room / minimal facility modifications (lockers + listening room buildout).

Lab Analyses $20K

[#18] Radiometric and isotopic lab re-analysis and secure sample archiving.

Legal And Public Affairs Initial $20K

[#19] Initial legal/cover-story management, PR and counsel to restrict publication and handle immediate inquiries.

Compensation For Discovery Team $20K

[#20] Buyouts/NDAs/compensation or relocation for discovery team and witnesses.

Field Site Actions $15K

[#15] Initial field-site security actions to temporarily restrict public access (permits, signage, limited fencing/coordination).

Equipment $12K

[#3, #5, #7, #9] Dataloggers/alarms (#3), playback/digitization hardware (#5), audio restoration software (#7), initial redundant backup media (#9).

Missing Persons Investigation $10K

[#21] Investigation into Don Hartley / historical research, travel and records searches.

Transport $8K

[#1] Secure transport from Montana discovery site to Site-37 (crate, armed escort, courier team, fuel/vehicle/air charter as needed).

[#22] IP/copyright counsel review for contained use and risk mitigation.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $4K

[#4, #8] Conservation/stabilization of records (#4) and cataloging/database entry and metadata setup (#8).

Optical Imaging System Purchase $0

[#6] Purchase of non-contact optical playback/scanning system not included in baseline (choosing outsourcing instead); purchase option noted but set to 0 for baseline.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $130K/yr

Staff Wages $90K/yr

[#10, #11, #12] Archivist (fractional/1.0 FTE equivalent) and audio engineer/forensic specialist (1.0 FTE equivalent) plus incremental security staffing for handling and audits.

Optical Imaging Outsourcing Per Year $12K/yr

[#6] Budgeted outsourcing for non-contact optical scanning jobs (assumes a small number of outsourced sessions per year rather than purchasing system).

Research And Monitoring $12K/yr

[#7, #13, #14] Specialist audio-contracting for restoration/forensic work, procedural compliance and listener monitoring, and averaged re-conservation cycles.

Cover Story And Legal $6K/yr

[#19] Ongoing retainer/PR/legal monitoring for FOIA/press or slow-burn legal/cover needs.

Psychological Screening $5K/yr

[#23] Baseline and periodic psychological screening and medical monitoring for personnel who handle/listen to records.

Documentation And Audit $3K/yr

[#25] Annual audit, reporting, admin overhead and compliance paperwork.

Facilities Maintenance $2K/yr

[#3] Incremental energy costs for environmental control and monitoring (precision temp/RH) and alarm systems.

Supplies And Consumables $600/yr

[#9] Ongoing off-site encrypted backup storage costs, integrity checks, and consumable archival supplies (e.g., sleeves, PPE replenishment minimal).

Long Term Migration $180/yr

[#26] Averaged cost for digital master migration and refreshes (5–10 year cycle averaged annually).

Logistics And Transport $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $130K/yr

96.5% probability / year

Normal year with no incidents: routine archival work, scheduled digitization, and periodic monitoring.

routine_preservation scheduled_digitization no_incidents

🚨 Minor Incident $180K/yr

3.0% probability / year +$50K vs baseline

Playback or handling results in an unexpected but containable anomalous effect requiring medical response, temporary quarantine and additional forensics.

unexpected_memetic_effect_on_listener medical_response temporary_quarantine

🚨 Major Site Discovery $2.1M/yr

0.5% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline

Field investigation reveals additional anomalous material at discovery site requiring deep drilling, extended excavation, relocations and substantial containment operations.

discovery_of_additional_anomalies_at_site deep_drilling_required large-scale_containment

👥 Personnel 3 total

Role	Count	Notes
Archival Curator / Archivist	1	[#10] Fractional allocation assumed as 1.0 FTE equivalent for oversight, audits, condition checks and catalog management.
Audio Engineer / Forensic Specialist	1	[#11] Responsible for digitization, restoration, and forensic analysis (mix of staff and contracted support assumed).
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1	[#12] Incremental guard coverage for handling sessions, audits and chain-of-custody during transfers.

📋 Confidence Notes

Baseline archival and personnel costs are well-constrained; major cost drivers (deep drilling, extended containment, legal buyouts, and site-wide responses) are highly uncertain and subject to large variance, producing medium overall confidence.

← SCP-3833 ↑ All SCPs SCP-3835 →