SCP-3945 — SCP-3945 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-3945 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-3945

Expected annual

$1.3M

One-time setup

$2.6M

Annual recurring

$1.2M

Personnel

One-time setup and contingency costs are modest-to-moderate (~$2.61M) driven by possible BSL-3 retrofit and contingency reserve; recurring annual costs are dominated by staffing, legal/cover-up reserves, incident management and mental-health support (~$1.19M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.6M

Facilities $1.3M

[#1, #7, #11] Locker upgrade, climate-control installation and BSL-3 retrofit contingency.

Contingency Reserve One Time $600K

[#29] One-time contingency reserve for unanticipated escalations or capital needs.

Equipment $408K

[#2, #4, #5, #6, #19, #20, #22] Blackout cloths, remote manipulator purchase, non-visual sensing suite & development, visual-feed lockout hardware, secure-data hardware, secure transport crate, viewer-tracking DB (one-time components).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $272K

[#10, #26] Initial forensic/biological analyses and budgeted single-study research setup (per-study instrumentation/expenses).

Emergency Spares Kit $20K

[#24] One-time spare parts / secondary power / backup blackout cloths kit.

Training And Sop Development $16K

[#21] Initial development and delivery of memetic-safety and non-visual SOPs.

Final Disposal Decommissioning $15K

[#28] Controlled destruction/decommissioning budget if disposal is authorized.

Bsl2 Provisioning Kit $14K

[#8] Initial BSL-2 PPE/protocol kit and setup.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.2M/yr

Cover Story And Legal $425K/yr

[#17, #18] Annual covert/cover-up reserve and retained internal legal & ethics counsel.

Staff Wages $260K/yr

[#12, #13] 24/7 containment/security staff (guards + operator) and dedicated containment scientist (salary+benefits).

Incident Investigation Reserve $200K/yr

[#16] Annual reserve for investigations, forensic work and administrative/legal inquiries per serious incident risk.

Long Term Treatment Reserve $100K/yr

[#15] Reserve for long-term treatment, disability payouts and retraining for affected personnel.

Redaction And Recordkeeping $50K/yr

[#23] Staff and operations to maintain redacted reports, classification paperwork and records retention.

Public Health Response Reserve $50K/yr

[#25] Annual reserve for public health notification / quarantine / communications in the event of a pathogen or exposure event.

Research And Monitoring $45K/yr

[#5, #27] Non-visual sensing/software maintenance and fMRI/EEG facility usage budget for permitted studies.

Mental Health Support $22K/yr

[#14] Baseline mental-health screening, counseling and support for assigned staff.

Manipulator Service $10K/yr

[#4] Remote manipulator maintenance / service contract.

Supplies And Consumables $8K/yr

[#3, #8, #9, #30] Cloth laundering/replacements, BSL-2 consumables/training consumables, regulated waste disposal, small operational consumables.

Secure Data Maintenance $6K/yr

[#19] Maintenance and operations for encrypted servers, backups and tamper-evident logs.

Training Refresher $5K/yr

[#21] Annual refresher training and memetic-safety drills.

Viewer Tracking Operations $4K/yr

[#22] Ongoing operations / hosting for viewer-tracking and authorization database.

Emergency Spares Replenishment $4K/yr

[#24] Annual replenishment of spare blackout cloths, sensor consumables and spare parts.

Visual Feed Maintenance $3K/yr

[#6] Maintenance for visual-feed redaction/lockout systems.

Facilities Maintenance $600/yr

[#7] Climate-control energy & maintenance (locker-level refrigeration/HVAC energy).

Logistics And Transport $0/yr

[]

Bsl3 Contract Usage $0/yr

[#11] Contracted BSL-3 usage is contingency/as-needed; baseline set to $0/yr unless engaged.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.2M/yr

83.0% probability / year

Normal, uneventful year with only baseline containment operations and scheduled maintenance.

no_incident no_external_exposure routine_operations

🚨 Minor Incident $1.4M/yr

15.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline

Single serious personnel or exposure incident requiring additional treatment, investigation and cover-up actions.

suicide_or_serious_injury localized_public_exposure internal_investigation

🚨 Bsl3 Upgrade Event $2.4M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$1.2M vs baseline

Analysis reveals higher biosafety risk and a BSL-3 retrofit or on-site conversion is authorized (one-time capital expense) in that year.

pathogen_identified forensic_result_requires_higher_biosafety

👥 Personnel 4 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	2	[#12] Two on-shift guards to maintain 24/7 physical containment/watch.
Monitoring Operator	1	[#12] On-shift operator to monitor locked systems and prevent unauthorized viewing.
Research Scientist	1	[#13] Dedicated containment scientist/technician (0.5-1.0 FTE modeled as 1.0 FTE here) responsible for SOPs and evidence handling.

📋 Confidence Notes

Mid-level confidence: many line items are well-scoped (locker, manipulator, staffing) but several items (BSL-3 retrofit, per-incident cover-up/legal/treatment) have wide ranges and conditional usage, producing uncertainty in one-time and contingent costs.

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