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SCP-7971 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-7971
Expected annual
$4.8M
One-time setup
$6.8M
Annual recurring
$4.7M
Personnel
19
Initial setup capital is estimated at approximately $6.76M one-time, driven by facility construction, robotics/winch/comms/power installations and an insurance reserve. Annual operating costs are substantial (~$4.71M/yr), driven largely by specialist staff wages, ongoing logistics (helicopter support), legal/cover story expenses, and administrative overhead.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $6.8M
Facilities $2.8M
[#1, #2, #3, #22] Perimeter fencing and installation, remote guarded compound/base-camp buildout, optional road construction heavy works, and possible long-term shoring/sealing/containment engineering.
Equipment $2.2M
[#7, #8, #10, #15, #16, #9] Autonomous tethered robotic fleet purchase (incl. spares), deep winch and tether hardware, long-range comms relays/antennas, emergency/rescue gear, power-generation hardware (generators/solar/battery), subterranean environmental sensor nodes.
Insurance Reserve One Time $1.0M
[#24] Up-front reserve fund for catastrophic response, containment failure, or major legal/PR action.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $475K
[#11, #13, #14, #18] Scientific laboratory and secure vault buildout (environmental control), initial sample-analysis consumables, BSL workspace upgrades/PPE stock, and initial compute/storage/data-archiving setup.
Cover Story Initial $100K
[#4] Initial local permits, diplomacy, bribes/liaison and forged documentation to establish the excavation cover story.
Specialized Training One Time $50K
[#5] Initial specialized caving/high-altitude training and certifications for field teams.
Thaumaturgy Supplies One Time $50K
[#20] One-off ritual paraphernalia and rare consumables required to support authorized thaumaturgical work.
Waste Handling Setup $30K
[#17] Initial waste-handling infrastructure and environmental remediation setup to support operations and cover story compliance.
Community Compensation One Time $30K
[#23] One-time culturally-sensitive compensation and community consultation payments for descendants/local families.
Transport And Custody One Time $20K
[#12] One-time recovery, guarded transport, forensic packing and chain-of-custody costs for SCP-7971-1.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $4.7M/yr
Staff Wages $2.2M/yr
[#5, #6, #13, #15, #20] Salaries for specialized caving team, security personnel, specialist research staff, on-site medical officer, and retained thaumaturgical personnel.
Cover Story And Legal $540K/yr
[#4, #21, #23, #24] Annual cover-story maintenance (local liaison and PR), in-house legal/compliance staffing and contingency legal/crisis funds, ongoing community liaison, and insurance/risk-contribution.
Facilities Maintenance $465K/yr
[#1, #2, #8, #16, #17, #22] Annual upkeep/inspections and repairs for perimeter fencing, base-camp operations/utilities, winch/cable replacement and maintenance, power fuel/maintenance, waste-handling operations, and periodic containment/shoring inspections.
Logistics And Transport $425K/yr
[#3, #6] Recurring transport budget dominated by helicopter lift/air logistics (alternative to road construction) and travel/accommodation allowances for security/logistics.
Administrative Overhead $400K/yr
[#26] Program management, procurement, travel reimbursements, HR and general administrative overhead (estimated as 10–20% of program).
Replacement Reserve $200K/yr
[#19] Contingency/reserve fund for irrecoverable loss of robots or specialized gear (10–30% of equipment value principle).
Medical And Rescue $150K/yr
[#15] Medevac contract standby and dedicated emergency extraction readiness (note: on-site medic salary included in staff_wages).
Research And Monitoring $145K/yr
[#9, #11, #18, #10, #25] Ongoing subterranean environmental monitoring calibration and data acquisition, laboratory monitoring/environmental control, cloud/storage and analysis costs, satellite bandwidth/telemetry, and archival/periodic review constraints.
Robot Maintenance $100K/yr
[#7] Annual maintenance, spare parts, and field repair kits for autonomous robotic assets.
Supplies And Consumables $25K/yr
[#14] PPE replacement, decontamination supplies, waste disposal consumables associated with biohazard/forensic containment.
Thaumaturgy Supplies $20K/yr
[#20] Recurring consumables and small ritual supply purchases needed to support occasional authorized thaumaturgical operations.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $4.7M/yr
83.0% probability / year
Normal operational year with helicopter-supported logistics, routine maintenance, and no major incidents.
routine operations no major equipment loss cover story maintained
🚨 Minor Incident $5.0M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline
One or more irrecoverable equipment losses (robot or gear) and limited emergency response (short-term medevac/repairs).
robot loss localized cave collapse small rescue/replacement operations
🚨 Major Breach $7.2M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$2.5M vs baseline
Containment/operational failure that requires large-scale emergency containment, media/legal response, major equipment replacement and potential engineering works.
containment breach public exposure large-scale salvage/engineering
👥 Personnel 19 total
Role Count Notes
Specialized Caving Team 8 [#5] Rotational full-time caving/high-altitude specialists to conduct exploration and operations.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 5 [#6] Armed perimeter guards and quick reaction personnel (rotational shifts).
Research Scientist 4 [#13] Archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, and anomalous studies researchers analyzing samples and data.
Medical Officer 1 [#15] On-site medic for high-altitude and subterranean operations (salary included in staff_wages).
Thaumaturge / Occult Specialist 1 [#20] Retained thaumaturgical practitioner authorized case-by-case to support exploration/containment.
📋 Confidence Notes
Estimates are based on analyst-provided ranges and the SCP article's operational description; many items (road vs helicopter choice, scale of thaumaturgical involvement, engineering containment) are uncertain, producing medium confidence in totals.
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