SCP-5945 — SCP-5945 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5945 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-5945

Expected annual

$6.3M

One-time setup

$2.6M

Annual recurring

$6.2M

Personnel

One-time capital costs (~$2.6M) are driven by vault construction, R&D into memetic neutralization, and specialized digitization/archival hardware; recurring annual costs (~$6.2M) are dominated by staff wages, temporal-effects research, legal/PR/containment reserves, and ongoing monitoring.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.6M

Facilities $1.0M

[#1] Climate-controlled, RF/EM-shielded archival vault construction and supervised viewing booths; chosen midpoint within $250k–$2.5M range for a secure retrofit.

Memetic Neutralization R And D $1.0M

[#19] One-time R&D capital for memetic neutralization/filter prototypes and lab setup (chosen $1.0M within $250k–$3M range).

Equipment $260K

[#2, #6] Hardened air-gapped digital archive, high-resolution digitization hardware, initial storage arrays and one-time CCTV/badge/physical-security hardware ($200k + $60k chosen within ranges).

Archival Redundancy Initial $150K

[#20] Initial off-site secure backups and cold-storage duplication ($50k–$300k range; chosen midpoint).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $75K

[#3] Redaction/sanitization lab and safe-copy workflow setup (software licenses, QA equipment) estimated midpoint of $25k–$150k.

Exhibit Installation $75K

[#7] One-time secure exhibit/vitrine and supervised viewing installation per exhibit (chosen single-exhibit baseline within $40k–$250k).

Museum Partnership Stipends $25K

[#8] One-time stipend/indemnity payment to hosting institution for a single exhibition agreement (within $10k–$100k range).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $6.2M/yr

Temporal Effects Research $2.0M/yr

[#27] Dedicated program to investigate TE-1945 impacts (historians, temporal physicists, simulations); major distant cost driver.

Staff Wages $940K/yr

[#5] Salaries for core specialized team: 1Senior Memetic Researcher, 2 Psychiatrists, 2 Archivists, 3 Technicians, 1 Legal liaison. Total chosen within analyst range (~$600k–$1.2M).

Cover Story And Legal $650K/yr

[#16, #17] Legal counsel, covert record suppression, FOIA responses, and disinformation/PR budget combined (legal + covert actions + media management).

Emergency Response Reserve $500K/yr

[#13] Annual allocation toward rapid-response fund for medical treatment, containment breach response, crisis PR and possible MTF activation costs.

Research And Monitoring $400K/yr

[#4, #10] Memetic screening/testing program (Martens-Weber tests) plus translation/historical research and provenance verification (combined ongoing program costs).

Security And Monitoring $250K/yr

[#6] On-site guard salaries, CCTV monitoring contracts, intrusion detection maintenance and response fees (ongoing security spend).

International Liaison $200K/yr

[#18] Diplomatic coordination, foreign-archive liaison and clandestine retrieval support budget (annualized).

Insurance And Contingency $200K/yr

[#25] Annual insurance premiums and contingency legal reserve to cover liabilities and out-of-court settlements.

Digital Monitoring Takedown $150K/yr

[#9] Continuous internet monitoring, automated crawlers, digital-forensics staff and takedown/legal actions to remove illicit reproductions.

Forensic Preservation Program $150K/yr

[#11] Program-level conservation, chemical stabilization, hazardous disposal and specialist conservator work (annualized).

Medical And Psych Care $150K/yr

[#14] Ongoing counseling, long-term psychiatric care and inpatient treatment budgets for affected subjects.

Memetic Neutralization R And D Maintenance $150K/yr

[#19] Ongoing testing, prototype maintenance and engineering time for memetic-filter technology development.

Facilities Maintenance $120K/yr

[#20, #21] Climate-control/utilities for archive, server power and maintenance, and redundancy-site upkeep (includes archival maintenance and utilities).

It Security And Software $80K/yr

[#23] Secure cataloging software licenses, encryption key management, intrusion detection and sysadmin costs.

Logistics And Transport $75K/yr

[#12] Secure courier/containment transport budget for routine moves and chain-of-custody transfers (annualized).

Mortuary And Forensic $50K/yr

[#15] Autopsy, secure remains handling, kin engagement and potential compensation per-incident budget (annualized reserve).

Containment Policy And Training $30K/yr

[#28] SOP development, annual memetic-safety drills, and training workshops for staff and partners.

Redaction And Safe Copy $25K/yr

[#3] Recurring per-batch redaction/sanitization and safe-copy workflow costs (software maintenance, per-batch processing).

Compliance And Audit $25K/yr

[#24] Archive accreditation, periodic memetic-safety audits and legal compliance reviews.

Supplies And Consumables $20K/yr

[#22] PPE, hazardous-material disposals, consumables for conservators and labwork (chosen within $1k–$25k/yr).

Digitization And Storage Maintenance $15K/yr

[#2] Maintenance, periodic media refresh and storage refresh for digitized archives (annualized $5k–$25k).

Access Controls And Vetting $15K/yr

[#26] Background checks, visitor vetting hardware and ongoing vetting costs for researchers and guests.

Exhibit Maintenance $12K/yr

[#7] Annual maintenance and staffing costs per exhibit (chosen single-exhibit baseline within $5k–$30k/yr).

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $6.2M/yr

88.0% probability / year

Normal operational year with routine monitoring, exhibitions, and research at stated staffing and program levels.

routine_operations scheduled_exhibits no_major_incidents

🚨 Minor Incident $6.5M/yr

10.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline

Localized incident such as a testing-related severe adverse reaction or an isolated public exposure requiring medical, mortuary and legal response.

subject_suicide localized_contamination single_public_exposure

🚨 Major Exposure $11.2M/yr

2.0% probability / year +$5.0M vs baseline

Widespread public leak or high-profile exhibition breach triggering heavy litigation, international diplomatic costs, large-scale retrievals and major PR/legal operations.

widespread_online_leak high-profile_museum_breach foreign_government_dispute

👥 Personnel 9 total

Role	Count	Notes
Senior Memetic Researcher	1	Lead researcher and memetic specialist (salary ~150000/yr included in staff_wages).
Psychiatrist / Psychologist	2	Clinical staff for testing and subject care (salaries ~200000/yr each used in estimate).
Archivist	2	Conservation and archival specialists (salaries ~60k/yr each used in estimate).
Technician	3	Digitization, conservator techs and lab support (salaries ~50k/yr each used in estimate).
Legal Liaison / Counsel	1	In-house legal coordination for exhibitions and covert actions (salary ~120000/yr included).

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges allowing a reasonable central estimate, but large uncertainties remain around temporal-effects research scale, R&D scope, and incident frequency/severity; ranges produce medium confidence.

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