SCP-503 — SCP-503 | Cost Breakdown

Read on SCP Wiki ↗

SCP-503 Euclid ~ medium confidence

SCP-503

Expected annual

$2.3M

One-time setup

$2.2M

Annual recurring

$2.2M

Personnel

Initial setup requires moderate capital for a dedicated reinforced holding cell plus recording and backup systems (~$2.2M one-time total). Annual operations are dominated by staffing, research, security response and legal/cover-story costs (~$2.22M/year), with episodic incidents capable of adding tens of thousands to millions per event.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.2M

Contingency Reserve Initial $1.1M

[#18] Incident contingency fund / catastrophic event reserve (initial capitalization).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $625K

[#14] Initial multi-year research program seed funding (sequencing, proteomics, neuropsych, assays, approvals, initial experiments).

Equipment $185K

[#2, #3, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13] CCTV system; video recording/storage hardware (NVR/RAID) setup; initial tooling for searches; full-body scanner equipment; restraints and immobilization gear; HVAC/environmental monitoring hardware; UPS/generator hardware; initial cybersecurity hardware/setup.

Facilities $175K

[#1] Dedicated holding-cell construction (reinforced cell, tamper-proof fixtures, intercom, lockable access corridor).

Staff Vetting Initial $81K

[#19] Initial background checks and high-clearance vetting for ~25 staff (polygraphs, deep background investigations).

Transport Initial Transfer $12K

[#23] Secure transport and initial transfer costs for capture/relocation.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.2M/yr

Staff Wages $400K/yr

[#4] Monitoring personnel wages (24/7 observation coverage; ~8 FTE security/monitor positions at Foundation pay).

Research And Monitoring $400K/yr

[#14] Ongoing research program costs (assays, sequencing, animal work, computational resources, ethics/compliance overhead allocated to program).

Rapid Response $350K/yr

[#5] Rapid response/security on-call team operations including personnel, vehicles, training and overtime.

Cover Story And Legal $175K/yr

[#16] Legal/cover-story/records management ongoing budget for FOIA, record alteration, and proactive legal risk mitigation.

Data Analysis And Statistics $140K/yr

[#15] Dedicated statisticians, data analysis personnel, and computing resources to quantify anomalous effects.

Medical Retainer And Care $125K/yr

[#6] Medical staff retainer, EMT/physician on-call agreements, periodic care budgets (acute ER costs are incident-driven).

Contingency Replenish $100K/yr

[#18] Annual replenishment allocation for the incident contingency reserve as used.

Psychiatric Care $75K/yr

[#7] Regular psychiatric consultations, medications, counseling, and anti-self-harm program upkeep.

Daily Search Labor $65K/yr

[#8] Labor costs for mandated daily cell searches and related manual inspection time.

Training And Drills $60K/yr

[#20] Regular drills (camera tamper/emergency), suicide prevention training, and staff resilience programs.

Insurance And Indemnities $60K/yr

[#24] Insurance and internal indemnity/reserve funding for lawsuits, facility damage, or employee injury.

Staff Turnover And Replacement $60K/yr

[#25] Recruiting, onboarding, and training replacement staff for attrition attributable to the subject's long-term risk profile.

Pr And Disinformation Baseline $60K/yr

[#27] Baseline PR/disinformation budget for narrative management and low-level media mitigation.

Ethical Oversight And Compliance $40K/yr

[#26] IRB/ethical oversight, audits, compliance administration for proposed human-subject research.

Facilities Maintenance $30K/yr

[#22] Routine maintenance, spare parts, camera/HVAC/lock replacement and small repairs.

Cybersecurity Operations $15K/yr

[#13] Ongoing hardened network operations, intrusion detection, logging, and security updates.

Vetting Ongoing Monitoring $15K/yr

[#19] Ongoing personnel monitoring, periodic rechecks and security re-vetting.

Logistics And Transport $10K/yr

[#23] Recurring transfer and secure transport budget for occasional transfers between facilities.

Witness Management $10K/yr

[#17] Baseline annual budget for occasional witness relocation/management (per-incident costs highly variable; large events handled in scenarios).

Supplies And Consumables $8K/yr

[#21] Consumables and PPE for daily searches, evidence handling, cleaning agents, disposable bags.

Video Storage Maintenance $6K/yr

[#3] Ongoing video storage, backup operations, off-site redundancy and retention costs.

Scanner Maintenance $5K/yr

[#9] Maintenance and calibration for full-body/millimeter scanner or security screening equipment.

Hvac Energy And Maintenance $4K/yr

[#11] Energy and maintenance for HVAC/climate control and environmental monitoring systems.

Generator Fuel And Testing $4K/yr

[#12] Fuel and periodic testing for backup generator and UPS maintenance.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.2M/yr

81.5% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations, no major incidents or public exposure.

steady operations no medical emergencies no public leaks

🚨 Minor Incident $2.4M/yr

15.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline

Single acute medical incident or small-scale tampering event requiring ER care and limited cover-up/repair.

medical trauma camera tampering detected small operational breach

🚨 Major Incident $3.0M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$800K vs baseline

Public exposure or multi-day critical incident requiring witness relocation, large PR/disinformation, legal defense and extended recontainment efforts.

civilian exposure major media leak multi-victim collateral events

🚨 Catastrophic Breach $3.7M/yr

0.5% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline

Large-scale catastrophic event requiring full recontainment/recovery operations, large legal liability, and major replenishment of contingency reserves.

facility breach mass-casualty correlated events high-profile public disclosure

👥 Personnel 8 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Monitor	8	[#4] 24/7 observation staffing (approx. 8 FTE to cover rotations; staff_wages budgeted accordingly).

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges and a clear containment profile; however many items (incidents, legal/cover costs, contingency needs) are highly variable and subject to scenario-driven spikes, so cost estimates have moderate uncertainty.

← SCP-502 ↑ All SCPs SCP-504 →