SCP-5816 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-5816
Expected annual
$2.4M
One-time setup
$1.9M
Annual recurring
$2.4M
Personnel
10
One-time capital and fit-out (~$1.92M) driven by site modification, specialized equipment, and a seeded liability reserve; ongoing annual costs (~$2.38M/yr) driven primarily by staff wages, sustained forensic/memetic research, legal/PR/liability allocations, and medical/incident readiness.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.9M
Liability Reserve Seed $1.1M
[#17] One-time seed for an internal liability/compensation reserve (multi-year fund to cover casualties, compensation, off-the-books contingencies).
Equipment $345K
[#1, #4, #8, #10, #16, #19, #20, #22] Secure archival container (design+fabrication+installation), non-imaging sensor installation, safe-handling rigs/PPE initial purchase, initial secure transport cost (discovery move), communications/access-control hardware, copy-control startup materials, incineration capability setup/contract, initial data-security hardware.
Facilities $275K
[#2] Site-19 space allocation and hardened storage suite construction (secondary containment, non-imaging vestibule, redundant locks, electromagnetic hardening, inert-gas suppression).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $171K
[#3, #13, #14, #24, #26] Climate-control and archival conservation setup, initial R&D for safe documentation, commissioning artist impressions and secure archive setup, initial training/materials, initial safe surrogate commissioning.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.4M/yr
Staff Wages $850K/yr
[#5, #6] Security staffing (24/7 rotating guards and on-call level-3) and specialist research personnel salaries (memetics researchers, conservator, part-time psychiatric support). Includes overtime/hazard pay and benefits.
Forensic Memetic Research $600K/yr
[#21] Multi-year forensic memetic research program funding (mechanism studies, longitudinal studies, human-subjects oversight costs included in recurring research budget).
Cover Story And Legal $150K/yr
[#15] Legal retainer, PR/cover-story maintenance, coordination with government partners and baseline legal support.
Emergency Medical And Psychiatric Fund $150K/yr
[#11] Reserved contingency for emergency hospitalization, psychiatric response, long-term therapy and compensation related to exposure incidents.
Red Team And External Coordination $110K/yr
[#25] Annual simulated-leak/red-team exercises, external contracting, and liaison activities with external agencies for cover coordination.
Liability Reserve Replenishment $100K/yr
[#17] Ongoing replenishment contributions to the multi-year liability reserve to maintain fund levels after any drawdowns.
Ethical Oversight And Compliance $88K/yr
[#23] Institutional review, per-study insurance, ethics/legal compliance and human-subjects oversight costs.
Psych Screening And Public Monitoring $88K/yr
[#18] Ongoing psychological screening for staff and monitoring of nearby communities/public recruitment channels for anomalous recruitment spikes.
Personnel Screening And Restrictions $60K/yr
[#7] Recruitment, specialized screening, hiring restrictions, training and premiums to avoid vulnerable cohorts performing visual inspections.
Incident Response And Drills $48K/yr
[#12] Annual budget for memetic incident response team readiness, drills, equipment and training exercises.
Supplies And Consumables $40K/yr
[#3, #8, #9, #10, #14, #26, #27] Conservator supplies and deacidification consumables, PPE consumables, replaceable eye-covering inserts/parts, transport contingency/consumables, archive maintenance, surrogate refresh, and miscellaneous operational consumables.
Facilities Maintenance $28K/yr
[#4, #16, #22] Maintenance for non-imaging monitoring systems, compliance/auditing of communications/access-control, and recurring data-security system upkeep.
Research And Monitoring $25K/yr
[#3] Ongoing conservator assessment hours, routine monitoring and small-scale studies separate from the funded forensic research program.
Research Into Documentation $25K/yr
[#13] Ongoing R&D to develop no-photo documentation methods and safe descriptive technologies.
Logistics And Transport $10K/yr
[#10] Annual contingency for secure artifact transfers and transport logistics.
Training And Documentation $6K/yr
[#24] Recurring retraining, SOP updates, pocket protocols and refresher courses.
Copy Control Contingency Fund $5K/yr
[#19] Small recurring fund for evidence seizure readiness and routine handling of discovered unauthorized copies (per-incident costs budgeted separately in scenarios).
Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.4M/yr
92.0% probability / year
Normal year with no major containment incidents; ongoing operations, research, and readiness maintained.
no breach routine maintenance ongoing research
🚨 Minor Incident $2.6M/yr
6.0% probability / year +$220K vs baseline
Localized exposure or discovery of an unauthorized copy requiring medical treatment, evidence seizure, and localized PR/legal response.
single unauthorized copy leak limited staff/public exposures small-scale legal/medical response
🚨 Major Breach $3.4M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Large-scale public exposure or containment breach triggering widespread medical response, major legal action, and extensive remediation (possible incineration/large-scale destruction and large payouts).
public leak of multiple copies mass exposures leading to hospitalizations/suicides major litigation and PR crisis
👥 Personnel 10 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 4 [#5] Level-2 guards for 24/7 supervision (rotating shifts).
Security Supervisor / On-call Level-3 1 [#5] Senior on-call supervision for incidents.
Research Scientist (Memetics) 3 [#6, #21] Full-time memetics research staff (mechanism studies, experiment oversight).
Conservator / Archivist 1 [#3, #6] Professional conservator for paper preservation and safe handling.
Medical Officer (Psychiatrist/Psychologist) 1 [#6, #11, #12] Medical/psychiatric support for experiments and incident response (part-time but counted as 1 FTE equivalence).
📋 Confidence Notes
Estimates use midpoints of analyst-provided ranges where ranges were given; many costs (liability reserves, research program scale, and legal contingencies) are uncertain and scenario frequencies are expert judgment rather than empirical rates.
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