SCP-5852 — SCP-5852 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5852 Unknown ~ medium confidence

SCP-5852

Expected annual

$4.9M

One-time setup

$8.6M

Annual recurring

$4.8M

Personnel

One-time startup capital and contingency (~$8.55M) driven by secure insectary retrofit, specialized equipment, reserves and contingencies; recurring annual costs (~$4.82M/yr) dominated by research funding, staff wages, cover-story/legal upkeep and operations.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $8.6M

Facilities $2.1M

[#1, #7] Secure insectary retrofit at Site-21 and one-time HVAC/generator installation costs.

Incident Response Reserve Fund $2.0M

[#26] One-time reserve fund to seed contingency/legal/liability pool for major incidents.

Contingency One Time $1.4M

[#27] 20% contingency applied to one-time startup/capital sums.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $960K

[#3, #5] Imaging/analytical capital equipment (micro-CT, SEM, confocal, histology) and initial cold/sample storage freezers.

Equipment $945K

[#2, #6, #8, #18, #20, #21, #19] High-containment enclosures, autoclave install, access-control hardware, IT infrastructure hardware, acoustic node deployment (one-time portion), transport crates, citizen-reporting development (one-time portion).

Sample Disposal And Remediation Reserve $500K

[#22] Reserve for deep remediation/site remediation in case of public exposure or escape.

Initial Cover Story Dissemination $300K

[#15] Development and dissemination of initial Cover Story 5852.1 materials and seeded legitimate-looking studies.

Mtf Lambda12 Initial Training And Equipment $250K

[#9] Initial specialized capture/containment team training, PPE kits, transport crates and vehicle equipment.

Ppe Initial Stock $20K

[#11] Initial stock of bite-resistant PPE and related consumables (one-time purchase).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $4.8M/yr

Staff Wages $1.1M/yr

[#8, #13, #19] Scientific staffing (~$750k/yr), dedicated security guards (~$260k/yr), call-center/operator staffing (~$60k/yr).

Research And Monitoring $1.0M/yr

[#14, #20] Long-term research program funding (allocated $1,000,000/yr) plus acoustic network maintenance (~$40k/yr).

Contingency And Overhead $803K/yr

[#27] 20% contingency applied to recurring annual operations budget.

Cover Story And Legal $725K/yr

[#16, #17, #23] Ongoing cover/PR maintenance and expert contracts (~$200k/yr), media monitoring & legal retainer and takedown/litigation reserve (~$300k/yr), interagency/legal retainer (~$225k/yr).

Supplies And Consumables $395K/yr

[#4, #25, #11] Laboratory reagents and sequencing budgets (~$300k/yr), containment/rearing consumables (~$35k/yr), PPE replacement/medical reserves (~$60k/yr).

Logistics And Transport $220K/yr

[#9, #10, #21] Vehicle/equipment maintenance and MTF field logistics (~$30k/yr), field operations per-capture costs (~$150k/yr), courier & cold-chain consumables (~$40k/yr).

Incident Response Insurance Premium $200K/yr

[#26] Annual insurance premium / contingency premium to cover claims and settlements.

Occupational Health And Medical Monitoring $75K/yr

[#12] Staff medical/dental exams, annual surveillance, immediate treatment budgets and mental-health support.

Facilities Maintenance $70K/yr

[#7] Additional electricity for HVAC/environmental chambers and generator maintenance.

Mtf Lambda12 Refresher Training $60K/yr

[#9] Annual refresher training budget for MTF Lambda-12 field response capability.

Training And Outreach $55K/yr

[#24] Annual training/outreach to allied civilian agencies under the cover story.

Cybersecurity And It Operations $40K/yr

[#18] Recurring hosting, backups, encrypted comms, LIMS hosting, and cyber operations.

Biohazard Disposal $38K/yr

[#6] Contract incineration/medical waste disposal for euthanized/contaminated specimens and contaminated consumables.

Cold Storage Maintenance $26K/yr

[#5] Monitoring, maintenance and offsite storage costs for -80°C freezers and biobanking.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $4.8M/yr

89.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine operations, research progress, and no significant containment incidents.

no_escape_events steady_field_ops routine_research_and_pr

🚨 Minor Incident $5.1M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline

Localized escape or small public exposure requiring targeted remediation, extra field ops, overtime, and targeted PR/legal action.

single-site escape local media mention small remediation & claims

🚨 Major Breach $7.3M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$2.5M vs baseline

Significant containment failure or public exposure leading to large-scale remediation, litigation, expanded research response and major PR/legal payouts.

widespread public discovery multi-site escape major remediation & litigation

👥 Personnel 13 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist	4	[#13] Lead entomologist, molecular biologist/geneticist and senior consultants (portion of scientific staffing).
Research Technician	4	[#13] Laboratory and rearing technicians (3–4 techs indicated in notes).
Data Manager	1	[#13] Data management and LIMS operator included in scientific staffing.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	4	[#8] Dedicated on-site guards for the entomology wing (4 guards referenced).
Administrative Staff	1	[#19] Citizen-reporting operator / administrative support for call center operations.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and midpoints for most costs, so numerical estimates are moderately reliable; uncertainty remains due to anomalous behavior frequency, breach probabilities, and contingency sizing for unknown-scale events.

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