SCP-5452 — SCP-5452 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5452 Unknown ~ medium confidence

SCP-5452

Expected annual

$890K

One-time setup

$1.1M

Annual recurring

$855K

Personnel

Total one-time startup costs are approximately $1.11M driven primarily by initial memetic research setup and contingencies for GoI interaction; annual recurring costs are about $855k/yr driven by ongoing memetic research, staff wages, legal/cover operations, and contingency reserves.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.1M

Goi Interaction Contingency $550K

[#15] Contingency fund for covert negotiation, countermeasures, or covert acquisition if Arcadia/GoI interaction escalates (one-time reserve).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $325K

[#11] Initial setup for a small Pavon/memetic research project: lab buildout, software tools, specialist onboarding.

Reverse Engineering And Sandbox Development $175K

[#13] One-time project budget to attempt reverse-engineering/sandbox/emulation despite feasibility risk.

Equipment $34K

[#2, #3, #5, #12] Air-gapped playback workstation, Faraday enclosure, CCTV/biometric recording hardware, initial secure archival hardware.

Facilities $22K

[#1, #4] Dedicated secure object locker (tamper seals, chain-of-custody) and one-person playroom refurbishment/fit-out.

Power And Ups $4K

[#19] One-time purchase of UPS units / small backup power hardware for workstation and monitoring gear.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $855K/yr

Research And Monitoring $300K/yr

[#11] Ongoing memetic/Pavon research program (multi-year operational budget for specialists, engineers, thaumaturgical work).

Staff Wages $108K/yr

[#6, #25] PI partial allocation (0.2–0.5 FTE) plus one full-time research technician; baseline personnel cost in conservative program.

Cover Story And Legal $100K/yr

[#14] Internet monitoring, takedowns, legal counsel, cover-story and misinformation operations to suppress leaks/fandom propagation.

Contingency Reserve $100K/yr

[#20] Annual reserved fund to respond to anomalous escalation, quarantine needs, or incident-driven expenditures.

Goi Relations Operations $50K/yr

[#15] Ongoing lower-level covert operations / relationship maintenance costs related to Arcadia/GoI risks.

Administrative Overhead $30K/yr

[#17] Pro-rated Site-15 operational costs: utilities, HR, accounting, general security burden attributable to the program.

Security Staffing $25K/yr

[#7] Part-time/on-call security coverage for live sessions and rapid response during play.

Insurance $25K/yr

[#22] Internal legal defense and indemnity reserve for potential litigation or personnel claims.

Opportunity Cost Surcharge $25K/yr

[#24] Operational inefficiency surcharge (10–30% estimate) due to single-player mechanics and scheduling friction.

Psychiatric Screening $20K/yr

[#8] Pre-screening, debriefs, follow-up mental health checks and clinician time for affected personnel/subjects.

Medical Emergency Readiness $15K/yr

[#10] Reserved on-call medical/psychiatric response costs, emergency transport arrangements and short-term inpatient contingency buffer.

Long Term Monitoring $15K/yr

[#23] Ongoing behavioral monitoring of affected personnel and automated surveillance of communities for leaks/copies.

Test Subject Compensation $12K/yr

[#9] Compensation/overtime for external subjects or internal staff participating in sessions (per-session stipend/overtime aggregated annually).

Training And Protocols $12K/yr

[#16] Regular staff training, SOP updates, memetic safety drills and refreshers.

Ethical Review And Oversight $6K/yr

[#21] Costs to convene internal/external review panels, documentation, and outside consultants.

Facilities Maintenance $5K/yr

[#3, #4, #19] Maintenance of playroom, Faraday cabinet servicing, and minor site infrastructure upkeep.

Supplies And Consumables $3K/yr

[#18] Gloves, anti-static bags, seals, batteries, replacement media and small hardware replacements.

Archival Storage Maintenance $2K/yr

[#12] Encrypted storage maintenance, cold-vault backups and secure recording retention costs.

Equipment Maintenance $1K/yr

[#2, #5] Periodic maintenance images/spare unit upkeep for workstation and small equipment servicing.

Power Maintenance $1K/yr

[#19] UPS maintenance and incremental power usage for redundant systems.

Logistics And Transport $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $855K/yr

88.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine research, scheduled play sessions, maintenance, legal monitoring, and no major incidents.

standard_operations scheduled_testing

🚨 Minor Incident $905K/yr

10.0% probability / year +$50K vs baseline

Localized incident such as an acute psychological event, corrupted file requiring technician intervention, or short-term containment interruption.

session_psychological_emergency localized_file_corruption

🚨 Major Breach $2.4M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline

Significant containment breach or memetic escalation requiring site lockdown, large-scale response, legal/GoI countermeasures, and scale-up of research and mitigation.

containment_breach memetic_outbreak goi_involvement

👥 Personnel 3 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist / PI	1	[#6] PI oversight (partial FTE allocation) responsible for approvals and research leadership.
Research Technician	1	[#6] Full-time technician to run sessions, maintain logs, and operate equipment.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1	[#7] Part-time/on-call security presence for live play sessions and incident response.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges but many line items (memetic research, GoI interactions, contingency needs) are highly uncertain and scale nonlinearly; chosen point estimates are mid-to-conservative values.

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