← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-5814 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-5814
Expected annual
$10.8M
One-time setup
$22.4M
Annual recurring
$10.5M
Personnel
17
Estimated initial capital and startup costs are approximately $22.4M driven primarily by facility build-out, precision optical and analytical instrumentation, a multi-station measurement network, and an optional mitigation R&D seed. Annual recurring operations are estimated at ~$10.54M/yr driven by staffing, MTF sustainment, Greenland site operations/expeditions, data/infrastructure operations, and mitigation research.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $22.4M
Equipment $8.3M
[#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #9, #10] Precision optical measurement suite, dielectric/refractometry instrumentation, multi-station per-site equipment (5-station network), sample-prep setup, central data initial system, vault/glovebox build-out, high-resolution analytical instrument suite.
Facilities $8.0M
[#1] Secure SCIF-capable metrology lab build-out (cleanrooms, vibration isolation, precision HVAC, EM/RF shielding, backup power and physical security).
Mitigation Ark Initial $5.0M
[#16] Optional initial R&D funding for long-term preservation/ark research (conservative lower-bound initial program).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $550K
[#14, #15, #20] One-time computational/tooling porting and codebase, large-scale simulation infrastructure initial costs, calibration/traceability membership/setup.
Decommissioning $500K
[#24] Long-term decommissioning, sample transfer and facility mothballing costs.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $10.5M/yr
Staff Wages $3.3M/yr
[#7, #8, #14] Salaries and benefits for core scientific personnel, postdocs/technicians, metrology engineers, data/computational staff, and rotating technical/night coverage (annualized staffing cost).
Mtf Sustainment $2.0M/yr
[#12] Mobile Task Force sustainment (vehicles, aviation/airlift support, training, classified allowances and rapid-response caches).
Mitigation Research Operations $1.0M/yr
[#16] Ongoing minimal mitigation/ark research track operations (seed vaults, prototypes, contingency R&D).
Research And Monitoring $695K/yr
[#2, #6, #10, #14, #15] Instrument maintenance/calibration service contracts, central data operations (storage/replication), HPC/time for modelling, and simulation run costs.
Cover Story And Legal $500K/yr
[#18] Cover-story maintenance, misinformation/PR activities, legal contingency and front-organization overhead.
Emergency Response Reserve $500K/yr
[#13] Annual reserve to fund rapid-deploy emergency campaigns when >10 consecutive deviations are observed (event-driven fund maintenance).
Logistics And Transport $400K/yr
[#4, #11] Network-wide operations baseline and general transport/logistics for distributed stations and sample movement.
Communications And Liaison $400K/yr
[#17] Classified diplomatic efforts, cleared liaisons, secure comms, travel and inter-agency access procurement.
Greenland Expedition Reserve $400K/yr
[#11] Annualized reserve for periodic Greenland field campaigns (airlift, camps, heavy equipment and sample export logistics).
Insurance And Audits $300K/yr
[#23] Insurance, audits, accounting and classified program overhead (estimated portion of operations).
Clearance And Training $250K/yr
[#21] Personnel clearance costs, retention bonuses, secure training and psychological screening.
Supplies And Consumables $230K/yr
[#5, #3, #20] Ultrapure water systems consumables, reagents, filtration, cleaned cuvettes, calibration consumables and periodic reference materials.
Public Outreach And Preservation $150K/yr
[#25] Controlled publication, curated exhibits and community/diplomatic cultural programs for cover and leak mitigation.
Power And Utilities $150K/yr
[#19] Continuous power, backup generator fuel/maintenance and utilities for high-power labs and servers.
Facilities Maintenance $120K/yr
[#1] Ongoing facility maintenance, security systems upkeep and minor capital repairs for the metrology laboratory.
Ethics And Staff Support $60K/yr
[#22] Ethical reviews, counseling, rotation and staff support services.
Vault Ops $50K/yr
[#9] Environmental monitoring, inert-gas glovebox maintenance and vault security monitoring.
Long Term Refresh Reserve $30K/yr
[#6] Annualized reserve for multi-decade digital preservation migration/refresh (10–15 year refresh budget annualized).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $10.5M/yr
92.0% probability / year
Normal year with steady monitoring, routine expeditions and no major incidents.
routine_measurements scheduled_maintenance periodic_field_ops
🚨 Emergency Response Deployment $12.5M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline
Triggered multi-station urgent campaign and global rapid-response after >10 consecutive deviations requiring extra equipment and expeditions.
>10_consecutive_deviations rapid_additional_stations urgent_expeditions
🚨 Major Expedition $11.5M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Large Greenland/archaeological expedition and sustained field campaign requiring heavy airlift and extended MTF support.
large_field_campaign extensive_exhumation_or_recovery
🚨 Mitigation Scaleup $20.5M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$10.0M vs baseline
Leadership mandates large-scale mitigation/ark program expansion requiring sustained multimillion-dollar annual outlays.
strategic_mitigation_decision off-world_or_large-scale_ark_program
👥 Personnel 17 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist 4 [#7] Senior physicists/chemists responsible for experiment design and oversight.
Postdoc / Senior Technician 4 [#7] Postdocs and senior technicians handling daily experiments and sample prep.
Metrology Engineer 2 [#7] Engineers maintaining precision measurement systems and traceability.
Data Scientist / Computational Researcher 3 [#7, #14] Data analysis, simulation and computational chemistry staff.
Lab Technician / Night Ops 4 [#8] Rotating technical staff to provide 24/7 coverage, calibration and on-call engineering.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges allowing a mid-confidence estimate, but outcomes depend on leadership choices (optional mitigation scale-up), episodic expedition frequency, and long multi-decade preservation costs, leaving material uncertainty.
← SCP-5812 ↑ All SCPs SCP-5815 →