SCP-7109 — SCP-7109 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-7109 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-7109

Expected annual

$9.8M

One-time setup

$23.1M

Annual recurring

$9.7M

Personnel

Initial one-time setup is dominated by purchasing/controlling a sacrificial test range and establishing secure archival/execution infrastructure (total one-time ~ $23.1M). Annual costs (~$7.87M/year) are driven by staffing (MTF and containment staff), monitoring/takedown, and recurring research/remediation budgets.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $23.1M

Facilities $10.1M

[#1, #3, #24] Vault and climate-controlled archival storage (part of #1), purchase/long-term lease of sacrificial test range land (#3), secure/tamper-proof peripheral archive for takedown artifacts (#24).

Insurance Reserve $10.0M

[#16] One-time reserve fund to cover large-scale third-party property damage / hush payouts as an initial corpus (#16).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $2.6M

[#9, #19, #25] Forensic lab bench/instrument integration (#9), controlled-copy inertization R&D program initial costs (#19), initial research program setup for manifestation-parameter studies (#25).

Equipment $312K

[#1, #9, #14, #18, #22] Hardware write-blocker and specialized floppy reader (#1), forensic imaging benches and instruments (#9), sensor/drone hardware and infrastructure (#14), secure logging hardware and tamper-evident enclosures (#18), hardware preservation / donor part acquisition (#22).

Hardened Execution Environment $150K

[#2] Air-gapped, instrumented 'no-save' emulator hosts, secure hardware and custom firmware development to disable/save instrumentation (#2).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $9.7M/yr

Mtf Sigma5 Budget $3.0M/yr

[#6] MTF Sigma-5 operational budget for detection/takedown ops, travel, armor/transport, clandestine ops (~$1M–$5M/year) (#6).

Research And Monitoring $1.8M/yr

[#7, #15, #21, #25] Cyber monitoring and automated crawling (#7), ecological contracts and long-term ecology management (#15), honeypots and controlled-release vector research (#21), recurring research program costs for manifestation-parameter studies (#25).

Staff Wages $900K/yr

[#11] Permanent containment staff salaries and benefits: site custodian, project director, two on-site researchers, two security guards, part-time psychologist (#11).

Research Program Yearly $750K/yr

[#25] Annual recurring costs for controlled activations, long-term observation equipment operation, and multi-disciplinary staff for manifestation-parameter studies (~portion of $500k–$5M program) (#25).

Logistics And Transport $500K/yr

[#5] Emergency response team readiness, deployment budgets and mobilization costs for field containment (helicopters, heavy machinery, liaison, evacuation budgets) (#5).

Per Activation Remediation Fund $500K/yr

[#4] Annual replenishment for per-activation ecological/structural remediation and restoration fund (per-activation $100k–$5M; replenishment estimate assumes occasional activations) (#4).

Ecology Contracts $300K/yr

[#15] Contracts with ecologists and wildlife control for long-term management and assessments (~$100k–$1M/year) (#15).

Insurance Premiums $300K/yr

[#16] Recurring insurance premiums and fees to maintain coverage against third-party damage (~$100k–$1M/year) (#16).

Cyber Monitoring $250K/yr

[#7] 24/7 web crawling, hash detection, dark-web feeds and associated analyst support (~$100k–$400k/year) (#7).

Cover Story And Legal $200K/yr

[#8, #23] Takedown/legal/cover-up budget including counsel, cross-jurisdictional takedowns and covert cover operations; public deception/cover-material production budgets (#8, #23).

Takedown And Legal $200K/yr

[#8] Legal teams, expedited takedowns, preservation requests, cross-border counsel and covert incentives (~$50k–$1M/year) (#8).

Forensic Imaging Staff $200K/yr

[#9] Salaries for 2–3 skilled digital forensics/research staff to perform bit-level imaging and analysis (~$200k/year) (#9).

Psychological Support $200K/yr

[#17] Counseling, witness management, and false-memory operations / misinformation costs (~$100k–$500k/year) (#17).

Controlled Copy Rnd $200K/yr

[#19] Ongoing costs to develop inert/sterile copies and test modified ROMs safely (~$100k–$300k/year) (#19).

Red Team Exercises $125K/yr

[#20] Regular incident simulation exercises, contracted actors, legal simulations (~$50k–$200k/year) (#20).

Sensors Maintenance $100K/yr

[#14] Ongoing maintenance, operators and connectivity costs for perimeter sensor network and drone patrols (~$50k–$150k/year) (#14).

Honeypots $75K/yr

[#21] Honeypots, decoy servers, analysts and OPSEC to discover distribution vectors (~$25k–$150k/year) (#21).

Policy And Audit $60K/yr

[#10] Archival/replication policy development, audits, training and enforcement of media-copy prohibition (~$20k–$100k/year) (#10).

Secure Logging Maintenance $30K/yr

[#18] Maintenance and monitoring of secure logging systems and tamper-evident enclosures (~$10k–$50k/year) (#18).

Archive Maintenance $15K/yr

[#24] Maintenance of secure evidence archive and tamper-proof storage (~$5k–$25k/year) (#24).

Bio Waste Disposal $5K/yr

[#13] Biological waste disposal and invasive-species control per-incident costs (estimated expected annual incidents) (#13).

Hardware Replacements $5K/yr

[#22] Occasional replacement parts and donor machine acquisition for Apple II hardware (~$5k/year) (#22).

Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr

[#12] Monthly locker inspection consumables, PPE, documentation and waste disposal (~$500–$2,000/year) (#12).

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $9.7M/yr

74.0% probability / year

Normal year with routine monitoring, personnel wages, ongoing research programs, and no major unauthorized activations.

no_major_incident routine_monitoring

🚨 Minor Internet Spike $8.4M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$-1300000 vs baseline

A year with a noticeable uptick in uploads/distributions requiring intensified takedown and legal activity but no physical activations.

mass_uploads torrent_or_forum_leak

🚨 Controlled Research Run $9.9M/yr

20.0% probability / year +$200K vs baseline

Planned active research year involving controlled activations on the sacrificial range with restoration and expanded observation.

scheduled_test_runs sacrificial_range_operations

🚨 Major Unauthorized Activation $27.9M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$18.2M vs baseline

Unauthorized save/run in a populated area leading to emergency response, property damage, and large-scale remediation and cover-up.

unauthorized_save_inhabited_area mass_manifestation_or_infrastructure_damage

👥 Personnel 24 total

Role	Count	Notes
Site Director / Executive Staff	1	[#11] Project director; included in permanent containment staff salaries (#11).
Research Scientist	3	[#11, #25] Two on-site researchers (software and ecology) plus additional research program staff for ongoing studies (#11, #25).
Security Officer / MTF Agent	14	[#6, #11] Two on-site security guards dedicated to locker/asset checks (#11) plus MTF Sigma-5 operators (estimated average 12) funded under the MTF budget (#6).
Research Technician / Forensics Staff	3	[#9] Digital forensics and imaging staff (2–3) funded under forensic imaging staff line (#9).
Site Custodian / Facilities	1	[#11] Site custodian included in permanent containment staff (#11).
Medical Officer / Psychologist	1	[#11, #17] Part-time psychologist (counted as 1 FTE equivalent for budgeting and support) (#11, #17).
Administrative Staff	1	[#10] Administrative and audit support for policy/enforcement and archives (#10, #24).

📋 Confidence Notes

Costs are constructed from analyst-provided ranges and mid-point estimates; line items are well-identified but incident frequency and scale (per-activation damages) remain uncertain, producing moderate confidence.

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