SCP-4990 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-4990
Expected annual
$1.9M
One-time setup
$416K
Annual recurring
$1.9M
Personnel
12
Initial setup (~$416k) is driven by room build-out, specialized sensors and equipment, and secure storage; the largest recurring costs are personnel, lab/translation work, and a sizable contingency reserve, producing high steady annual costs (~$1.88M/yr).
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $416K
Equipment $156K
[#2, #3, #4] Initial specialized sensor suite purchase, redundant UPS/generator and initial fuel-ready capacity, and custom bed frames/mattress initial purchases.
Facilities $118K
[#1, #10, #14, #15] Room reconfiguration and structural work (raised platform, reinforced flooring, mounting points), secure climate-controlled vault setup, initial fire-protection modifications and sound/EM shielding.
Decommissioning $105K
[#26] One-time decommissioning/disposal procedures and costs (destructive testing, secure destruction, supervised disposal).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $25K
[#23] Initial SOP development, training program creation, and research setup documentation and protocols.
Emergency Response Equipment $12K
[#13] Initial emergency-response equipment: medical kit, stretcher, fall-protection, and initial rescue gear.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.9M/yr
Staff Wages $725K/yr
[#6, #7, #8, #12] Night-shift monitoring technicians, round-the-clock security guards, principal investigator + research team, and clinical/psychological support for the subject.
Contingency Fund $550K/yr
[#24] Annual reserved allocation for escalation, emergency construction, large-scale phenomena, or facility damage.
Research And Monitoring $372K/yr
[#3, #5, #9, #16, #20, #21] Sensor maintenance and calibration, data capture/storage/backups (including amortized hardware costs), laboratory analysis budget, controlled-experiment volunteer program (recurring compensation + amortized setup), translation/ML project costs, and incident forensics.
Cover Story And Legal $138K/yr
[#17, #18, #25] Ethics/oversight/legal counsel/liability insurance costs, cover story/public affairs retainer, and long-term archival/legal retention/publication suppression costs.
Logistics And Transport $45K/yr
[#13, #19] On-call emergency medic contracts/training and chain-of-custody secure transport/armored courier budgets.
Supplies And Consumables $22K/yr
[#11, #22, #2] BSL-2+ consumables/waste disposal, monitoring gear replacement parts and consumables, and occasional mattress replacements/repair allowance.
Facilities Maintenance $19K/yr
[#4, #10, #14] Generator/fuel/UPS maintenance, vault operating costs, and fire-suppression inspections/maintenance.
Training And Sop $10K/yr
[#23] Annual refresher training, tabletop exercises, and SOP updates (recurring refreshers).
Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.9M/yr
78.0% probability / year
Normal, uneventful year with steady operations and no major incidents.
routine_operations no_major_incidents
🚨 Minor Incident $2.0M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$107K vs baseline
Localized incident such as mattress underside fires or small structural damage requiring repairs, medical care, and additional forensic/testing.
mattress_fire minor_structure_damage medical_treatment
🚨 Major Breach $2.6M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$750K vs baseline
Containment escalation with bed breakage, external appearance of persons or artifacts, large security/relocation/repair costs and public mitigation.
bed_breakage_and_escape multiple_artifact_apparitions widespread_anomalous_effects
🚨 Research Breakthrough Requiring Scale Up $2.4M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Successful translation/analysis yields actionable intelligence prompting rapid scale-up of research, telemetry, and staff.
successful_decryption need_for_scale_up additional_staff_hires
👥 Personnel 12 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 3 [#7] Round-the-clock site security (2–4 guards; averaged to 3).
Night-shift Technician / Observer 2 [#6] 24/7 coverage for on-site monitoring; two FTEs for redundancy.
Research Scientist 4 [#8] Principal investigator plus research team (linguist, anthropologist/archivist, materials scientist/physicist; 3–5 FTEs).
Medical Officer 1 [#12] Clinical and psychiatric support and sleep-specialist coordination for the subject.
Engineer / Maintenance 1 [#4] Maintenance and oversight for UPS/generator, room systems and sensor hardware.
Administrative Staff 1 [#17] Administrative, legal liaison, and ethics/oversight coordination.
📋 Confidence Notes
Cost ranges are derived from analyst-provided ranges and reasonable mid-point selections and amortizations. Many line items (equipment lifetimes, incident frequencies, and contingency sizing) are uncertain, so totals are approximate but grounded in the provided estimates.
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