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SCP-509 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-509
Expected annual
$2.6M
One-time setup
$2.9M
Annual recurring
$2.6M
Personnel
35
Initial capital expenditures are approximately $2,858,000 (mainly property acquisition, engineered ventilation/scrubbing, secure upgrades, and contingency funding). Recurring annual costs are approximately $2,624,530, driven primarily by staff wages (security, operations, and research), regulatory/compliance monitoring, consumables, and a currency/inflation contingency.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.9M
Facilities $1.3M
[#1, #3, #7] Acquisition/purchase of both properties and structural upgrades: perimeter, reinforced doors, and installation of industrial ventilation/scrubber ducting sized to building volumes.
Incident Contingency Fund Initial $600K
[#25] Seeded contingency / crisis response fund per program to cover large emergency response, legal defense, cleanup, or settlements.
Equipment $454K
[#4, #5, #6, #8, #19, #20, #14] Surveillance/hardware, remote activation/control panels, generators/UPS, initial PPE purchase, emergency response staging equipment, IT/hardware, and refrigerated holding/container purchase.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $345K
[#12, #13] Wet lab/autopsy suite and core lab buildout (fume hood, autopsy table, freezers for -20/-80 storage) and initial lab instrumentation.
Legal One Time $50K
[#2] One-time local legal, notary, zoning/exemption filings, and setup fees to permit/cover initial acquisition/operations.
Identity Setup Initial $30K
[#22] One-time costs to create controlled identities, initial legal wrappers, and forensic identity provisioning for recovered humans.
Public Cover Initial $20K
[#23] Initial public cover / PR setup, signage, community relations, and initial neighbor compensation setup.
Recovered Humans Initial Screening $20K
[#21] Initial psychological screening and onboarding training for recovered humans (one-time per newly employed cohort).
Training Program Initial $17K
[#18] Development and initial execution of activation/test operation planning, rehearsals, and cross-training materials.
Archive Setup $6K
[#29] One-time secure archive setup (physical/digital) and controlled access hardware.
Medical Initial Baseline $6K
[#9] Baseline medical screening for staff (baseline pulmonary function tests/chest x-rays) on program startup.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.6M/yr
Staff Wages $1.8M/yr
[#10, #11, #12, #21] Salaries and benefits for 24/7 security staff, site managers, technicians, research scientists/pathologists, lab techs, and salary/housing for recovered humans employed in minimal-security roles.
Currency And Inflation Contingency $342K/yr
[#30] 15% contingency applied to recurring budget to cover FX, regional cost differentials, and inflation (program-level reserve).
Research And Monitoring $137K/yr
[#12, #24, #20, #9, #18, #28, #29] Research consumables, environmental/ambient air monitoring and regulatory compliance, IT/data security audits and backups, ongoing medical surveillance/occupational health, refresher training for operations, ethics/compliance board overhead, and records archiving operations.
Facilities Maintenance $121K/yr
[#3, #6, #7, #13, #19, #27, #5] Ongoing perimeter and structural maintenance, generator fuel & service, filter replacements and HVAC electricity, freezer maintenance, emergency equipment upkeep, and recurring remote-activation/comms security updates.
Supplies And Consumables $66K/yr
[#8, #14, #15, #16, #26] Respirator cartridge/replacement consumables and fit-testing, biohazard disposal (carcasses), purchase of uncured carcasses for tests, disposition/disposal of cured carcasses, and general experimental consumables (towels, cleaning supplies).
Logistics And Transport $64K/yr
[#15, #17] Refrigerated transport of carcasses, routine international oversight travel, shipping of equipment, visas/per diems, and contingency evacuation travel.
Cover Story And Legal $55K/yr
[#2, #22, #23] Ongoing local counsel and liaison, maintenance of cover identities/legal wrappers, PR/community compensation, and routine legal/administrative liaison costs.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.6M/yr
94.5% probability / year
Normal year with scheduled testing, routine operations, and no major incidents.
scheduled activations routine research normal maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $2.8M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline
Localized accidental release or complaint requiring emergency response, short-term cleanup, and legal/PR mitigation.
accidental smoke/odor leak neighbor complaint or regulator inspection small medical exposure incident
🚨 Major Breach $3.4M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$750K vs baseline
Significant discovery or contamination event requiring large-scale legal defense, emergency cleanup, long-term healthcare, and payouts.
public discovery major regulatory enforcement large settlement or prolonged litigation
👥 Personnel 35 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 14 [#10] 24/7 security coverage (approx. 6–8 guards per site; modeled as 7 per site → 14 total).
Site Manager / Operations 2 [#11] One site manager per site for day-to-day operations and oversight.
Technician / Operations Tech 4 [#11, #5] Technicians to perform activations, maintain control systems, and run tests (distributed across sites).
Research Scientist / Pathologist 3 [#12] Scientific staff for experiments, pathology and analysis; salaries included in research staffing estimates.
Lab Technician 2 [#12, #13] Lab support staff to process samples, maintain freezers, and handle consumables.
Medical Officer / Medic 1 [#11, #9] Part-time/full-time medic or trained first responder coverage modeled as ~1 FTE equivalent.
Administrative Staff 2 [#2, #23] Legal/administrative liaison, HR/payroll for cover identities and site administration.
Engineer / Maintenance 2 [#6, #7, #27] HVAC, generator, scrubber, and structural maintenance staff (or contracted equivalents).
Recovered Humans (employed, Level-0) 5 [#21] Recovered humans trained/employed in minimal-security roles; payroll/housing accounted for in recurring costs.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide ranges for most line items and clear operational requirements; however site-specific choices (purchase vs lease, test cadence, number of recovered humans, and contingency sizing) introduce significant uncertainty, so confidence is medium.
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