SCP-5974 — SCP-5974 | Cost Breakdown

Read on SCP Wiki ↗

SCP-5974 Unknown ? low confidence

SCP-5974

Expected annual

$22.6M

One-time setup

$4.5M

Annual recurring

$22.2M

Personnel

Initial setup costs are moderate (~$4.5M) driven by vault upgrades, lab/test infrastructure, and specialized software development; annual operating costs are dominated by a large contingency/reserve plus MTF operations, legal/PR suppression, and staff wages (~$21.48M/yr).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $4.5M

Facilities $1.4M

[#1] High-Yield Data Facility 3 physical upgrade, secure vault construction (incl. decontamination airlocks, EMP/Faraday protections).

Io Nuntium Development $1.0M

[#8] One-time development & testing of I/O-NUNTIUM webcrawler, classification AI and takedown automation backend.

Equipment $750K

[#2, #3] Vault automation & robotic handlers (one-time equipment) and secure opaque sealed containers (inventory of 200 units).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $325K

[#13] Research lab equipment & safe-test infrastructure (hardened testing chambers, non-human test rigs, forensic rigs).

Destruction Research And Facility $300K

[#23] R&D and equipment for safe destruction/neutralization capability (incinerator/media destroyers, R&D).

Doctrine Development $188K

[#27] Containment-class-specific doctrine development, writing/testing and contractor fees (one-time development).

Decon Quarantine Setup $150K

[#22] Emergency decontamination & quarantine staging area capital (portable containers, isolation trailers).

Background And Clearance Initial $132K

[#20] Initial background checks/clearances for current expected staff (assumes ~22 new/onboarded staff × midpoint per-person clearance cost).

Cover Ops Setup $125K

[#21] Setup for front companies / fake storefronts / low-risk cover ops (initial capital).

Digital Archive Setup $100K

[#18] Initial secure offline archive and imaging system for cataloguing instances.

Communications Security Setup $88K

[#24] Initial secure communications & OPSEC hardware (encrypted comms, burner asset provisioning).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $22.2M/yr

Outbreak Reserve $11.0M/yr

[#25] Contingent worst-case societal mitigation reserve for major outbreaks (media buys, injunctions, expanded raids) — large, irregular but maintained as a standing reserve.

Staff Wages $4.2M/yr

[#4, #5, #12] On-site security staffing (guards), MTF Kappa-43 operations & readiness (teams, salaries, mission readiness), and research team salaries (memetics/psychology/computer archaeologists).

Legal Contingency $1.8M/yr

[#19] Legal contingency & covert settlement fund (annual reserve/retainer midpoint).

Cover Story And Legal $1.6M/yr

[#9, #10, #11, #21] I/O-NUNTIUM hosting/ops and takedown automation (hosting partly captured here), global content removal & legal takedown operations, influence/PR production and running cover operations.

Seizure Buyback Program $600K/yr

[#6] Ongoing buyback/purchase program (market monitoring, covert purchases); midpoint program budget used.

Medical And Longterm Care $600K/yr

[#14] Medical monitoring, emergency response readiness, ICU/psychiatric care reserves and long-term rehabilitation budget (annual reserve midpoint).

Logistics And Transport $450K/yr

[#7] Transport & secure logistics operational budget (armored courier, secure flights, specialty packaging).

Io Nuntium Hosting Ops $400K/yr

[#9] Hosting, ops, updates, bandwidth & cloud costs for continuous crawling, ML retraining and redundancy.

Program Management $325K/yr

[#26] Annual program management and auditing (internal compliance, auditing of suppression activities, contractor oversight).

Cover Ops $300K/yr

[#21] Ongoing costs to run front companies / fake storefronts and associated low-risk cover operations (operational budget midpoint).

Research And Monitoring $125K/yr

[#13] Annual upkeep for research lab equipment and safe-test infrastructure (maintenance, fail-safes).

Psych Screening And Rotation $125K/yr

[#16] Psychological screening, staff rotation and counseling to avoid second-hand trauma; memetic-safety briefings.

Training Updates $125K/yr

[#20] Annual training / certification updates for staff (memetic-safety recertification and clearance maintenance).

Forensic And Autopsy $110K/yr

[#15] Autopsy, pathology, memetic forensic costs reserve (per-case reserve aggregated).

Vault Automation Maintenance $100K/yr

[#2] Annual maintenance for vault automation & robotic handlers (servicing, parts, interlock testing).

Digital Archive Ops $88K/yr

[#18] Ongoing secure archive operations (offline storage ops, imaging throughput, secure handling protocols).

Destruction Maintenance $62K/yr

[#23] Annual maintenance and readiness for destruction/neutralization facility and protocols.

Communications Ops $60K/yr

[#24] Recurring costs for secure comms, burner asset rotation, and OPSEC infrastructure maintenance.

Doctrine Updates $50K/yr

[#27] Annual updates for Conscientia-class doctrine, training manuals and consultant fees (midpoint).

Supplies And Consumables $42K/yr

[#17] PPE, consumables, packaging materials, anti-static bags, tamper seals, archival packing.

Decon Quarantine Maintenance $30K/yr

[#22] Maintenance & readiness for decontamination/quarantine staging areas (annual upkeep midpoint).

Cataloguing Per Instance $18K/yr

[#18] Per-instance secure cataloguing cost (midpoint $175 per item × assumed 100 acquisitions/yr as per acquisition program scale).

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $22.2M/yr

85.0% probability / year

Normal year with steady operations, no major incidents; only routine operations and reserves funded.

steady acquisition rate routine MTF ops regular takedown workload

🚨 Minor Incident $22.0M/yr

12.0% probability / year +$-200000 vs baseline

Localized spike: several simultaneous discoveries/seizures requiring extra missions, medical treatment, and increased takedown/legal activity.

clustered discoveries small viral spread increased seizure missions

🚨 Major Outbreak $36.5M/yr

3.0% probability / year +$14.3M vs baseline

Widespread/viral publication leading to mass exposure; activation of large emergency response and heavy draw on outbreak reserve.

viral social media spread mass publication / leak multiple simultaneous casualties

👥 Personnel 22 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / Armed Guards	6	[#4] 24/7 on-site armed/cleared guard coverage (3 shifts); headcount chosen to match salary budget used in staff_wages.
MTF Agent / Rapid Response	10	[#5] MTF Kappa-43 operational teams (patrol/seizure personnel, medics) included in MTF operations budget.
Research Scientist	6	[#12] Memetics, psychology, and computer archaeologist specialists (4–8 in notes; midpoint used) included in research salaries.

📋 Confidence Notes

Estimates are low-confidence because many line items are highly variable (legal/reserve spending, outbreak frequency/severity) and the object is memetic/social in nature; analyst ranges are broad and scenario-driven.

← SCP-5973 ↑ All SCPs SCP-5975 →