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SCP-680 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-680
Expected annual
$1.1M
One-time setup
$918K
Annual recurring
$1.1M
Personnel
8.0
Estimated one-time setup of ~$918k driven by diagnostics bay build-out, containment locker and equipment; recurring operations ~ $1.10M/yr driven primarily by staff wages, analytical access, logistics and a budgetary contingency.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $918K
Facilities $300K
[#1, #4] Diagnostics bay build-out (structural/room work); administrative baseline note recorded but no incremental site construction beyond lab build-out.
Equipment $243K
[#2, #3, #5, #6, #11, #13, #20, #21] Secure storage locker, proximity sensor install, thermal/fire hardware, audiovisual capture, transport crate, initial protective kit, one-time software development, and incremental CCTV/hardware channels.
Incident Response Reserve $125K
[#16] One-time contingency reserve for emergency response, specialized contractors and initial cleanup costs.
One Time Contingency $120K
[#25] One-time contingency margin (~15% of one-time subtotal) applied due to uncertainties.
Disposal Planning $60K
[#24] Provision for contingency disposal/retirement operations if ever needed.
Legal Cover One Time $42K
[#17] One-time discovery/cover-story expenses and local liaison setup.
Initial Sop And Training $18K
[#10] Initial SOP development and qualification drills (one-time development and rollout).
Conservation Initial $10K
[#7] Initial conservation-grade assessment and treatment for the skull and unknown substance.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $0
[#8] Analytical equipment purchase not selected in baseline (will use recurring instrument-access); purchase option noted but set to 0 here.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.1M/yr
Staff Wages $720K/yr
[#9, #15, #21] Salaries and labor burden for containment/research team (Level-3 researcher, research techs, security, med tech, admin) plus data-analysis staffing and incremental monitoring staff time.
Budgetary Contingency $144K/yr
[#25] Recurring contingency margin (~15% of recurring subtotal) to cover uncertainties and variable research demand.
Research And Monitoring $74K/yr
[#6, #8, #10, #14, #20] Recurring audiovisual/software updates, paid instrument-access campaigns (XRF/ICP-MS/SEM), recurring training refreshers, medical post-test monitoring program, and ongoing software support/IT/storage.
Opportunity Cost $60K/yr
[#18] Estimated annual opportunity cost from scheduling limits (lost alternative productive work).
Cover Story And Legal $35K/yr
[#17, #23] Ongoing cover-story maintenance, local liaison costs, and redaction/secure dissemination labor.
Logistics And Transport $28K/yr
[#11, #12] Per-year allocation for transport prep/validation, routine inter-site movement logistics and occasional escorted moves.
Incident Response And Contingency Replenish $25K/yr
[#16] Annual replenishment allocation for the incident/contingency fund as used.
Supplies And Consumables $11K/yr
[#13, #19] Protective consumables, disposable sampling swabs, calibration/reference standards and per-campaign consumables.
Facilities Maintenance $5K/yr
[#3, #5] Maintenance/calibration for proximity-enforcement sensors and thermal/fire mitigation systems.
Miscellaneous Recurring $3K/yr
[#6, #21] Small recurring IT/retention and incremental monitoring recording retention costs not otherwise captured.
Long Term Research Program $0/yr
[#22] Program-level budget option noted (200k–1M/yr) — set to 0 in baseline; captured as a separate scale-up scenario instead.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.1M/yr
86.0% probability / year
Normal year with scheduled tests, routine maintenance and no major incidents or program expansion.
scheduled_tests routine_maintenance no_incidents
🚨 Minor Incident $1.2M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$50K vs baseline
Small filament overheating or minor localized incident requiring cleanup, overtime and limited repairs.
filament_overheat minor_cleanup overtime
🚨 Major Fire $1.4M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline
Significant filament-induced fire or contamination requiring major cleanup, external contractors and investigations.
fire_damage external_contractors facility_repairs
🚨 Inter Site Deployment $1.2M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$120K vs baseline
Cross-site deployment requiring airlift/charter and heavy security for a given year.
cross_country_airlift armored_escort route_security
🚨 Research Program Scale Up $1.6M/yr
3.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Decision to scale SCP-680 into a programmatic diagnostic service across multiple projects, requiring expanded budget.
program_scale_up multi-site_diagnostics expanded_staffing
👥 Personnel 8.0 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist (Level-3) 1 [#9] Senior researcher with Level-3 authorization; budgeted at ~120k/yr.
Research Technical Assistant 2 [#9] Technical assistants to run tests and sample prep; budgeted at ~70k/yr each.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#9] Security/transport guards for artifact movement and site security; budgeted at ~45k/yr each.
Medical Officer / Medical Tech 1 [#9, #14] On-call med tech for pre/post-test monitoring; salary and program costs budgeted separately.
Administrative Staff 0.5 [#9] 0.5 FTE admin for scheduling, records and logistics.
Data Analyst 1.5 [#15] Analysts for Morse parsing, QA/QC and archiving (1–2 FTE budgeted aggregated).
📋 Confidence Notes
Article provides detailed operational constraints and cost ranges but many items are range-based (lab purchase vs pay-per-use, incident sizes). Estimates use midpoints and programmatic assumptions; contingency included to reflect uncertainty.
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