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SCP-521 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-521
Expected annual
$398K
One-time setup
$113K
Annual recurring
$384K
Personnel
9
One-time setup costs are moderate (~$113k) for locker/vault modifications, equipment (tracker, vehicle, CCTV, IT) and archival fit-out; recurring annual costs are dominated by personnel, legal/cover funds, research/monitoring and incident reserves (~$382k/year). Main drivers are staff wages, legal/cover contingencies, research/archival processing, and retrieval logistics.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $113K
Equipment $80K
[#2, #3, #8, #15, #21, #22, #20, #26] GPS tracker hardware and installation, steel covering plates (initial spares), vehicle purchase (unmarked/armored option), IT storage/intranet setup, CCTV hardware/install, secure transfer containers, initial PPE and related equipment.
Facilities $34K
[#1, #12, #28] Locker modification (Secure Items Locker 15), initial Archive 4 vault fitting, and special-case vault upgrade for SCP-521-27.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $0
[]
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $384K/yr
Staff Wages $163K/yr
[#5, #7, #16, #30] Monthly battery-check/security tech labor, retrieval field team wages (per-deployment aggregated), archivist/cataloging staff (pro-rated), and research staffing (lead + assistant).
Cover Story And Legal $131K/yr
[#10, #11, #24] Per-retrieval civilian contact/cover operations, annual legal/PR contingency retainer, and incident response / emergency retrieval surge reserve.
Research And Monitoring $43K/yr
[#14, #18, #19, #21, #17, #28] Digitization and indexing, forensic/provenance testing and genealogical contractors, translation/paleography, CCTV/monitoring service costs, conservation/paper restoration, and extra monitoring for SCP-521-27.
Overhead Allocation $12K/yr
[#29] Proportional Site-39 overhead (utilities, admin support, HVAC share).
Logistics And Transport $9K/yr
[#8, #9, #25] Retrieval logistics (vehicles, fuel, tolls), overnight travel/per diems for remote retrievals, and municipal interaction/permits budget.
Facilities Maintenance $9K/yr
[#12] Archive vault climate control, utilities and routine facility upkeep.
Training And Drills $6K/yr
[#23] Periodic training, tabletop exercises and SOP maintenance for retrieval and archive staff.
Vehicle Maintenance $5K/yr
[#26] Annual maintenance, insurance and upkeep for Foundation-owned retrieval/secure vehicle.
Supplies And Consumables $4K/yr
[#13, #2, #6, #22, #20, #27] Archival consumables, spare steel plates replacements, tracker battery/module replacements, secure-transfer consumables, recurring PPE supplies, and periodic secure disposal costs.
Gps Data Plan $1K/yr
[#4] Satellite/GSM data plan and backup comms for GPS tracker(s).
It Maintenance $800/yr
[#15] Ongoing hosting, backups and secure intranet maintenance for digital archives.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $384K/yr
82.0% probability / year
Normal year with routine activations and standard archival/retrieval workload; no major incidents or legal crises.
occasional retrievals routine archiving normal maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $422K/yr
15.0% probability / year +$39K vs baseline
One or two more complex retrievals, some uncooperative recipients, modest legal/cover expenses and additional travel.
long-distance retrieval uncooperative civilian small legal payout
🚨 Major Incident $682K/yr
3.0% probability / year +$299K vs baseline
Large/unexpected public incident (multi-site activations, strong legal exposure, emergency charters and surge operations) requiring incident reserve.
multi-site activation major legal action emergency charters and surge staffing
👥 Personnel 9 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / Security Tech 1 Performs monthly battery checks and locker monitoring; maps to labor line item [#5].
Retrieval Team / MTF Agents 4 Rapid-response retrieval/containment team roster (2–4 per deployment); wages aggregated in [#7].
Archivist / Cataloging Staff 1 0.25–1.0 FTE pro-rated position to process incoming letters and maintain Archive 4; corresponds to [#16].
Research Scientist (Lead) 1 Lead researcher coordinating provenance and genealogical investigations; part of research staffing [#30].
Research Assistant / Archivist Assistant 1 Assistant support for research and cataloging (0.5 FTE typical) included in [#30].
Administrative Staff / Site Support 1 Administrative and records support for cover operations, permits and overhead allocation [#29, #10].
📋 Confidence Notes
Article and analyst notes provide many explicit line items and plausible ranges, allowing a moderate-confidence estimate; however wide ranges for legal exposure, vehicle/equipment choices, and retrieval frequency introduce uncertainty, so confidence is not high.
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