SCP-8018 — SCP-8018 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-8018 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-8018

Expected annual

$2.7M

One-time setup

$2.4M

Annual recurring

$2.7M

Personnel

First-year (one-time) capital and setup costs are approximately $2,445,000, with recurring annual operations around $2,654,500, driven primarily by personnel (psychiatric and research staff), mnestic development/production, and secure data/storage/analysis infrastructure. Major adverse events (medical/memetic incidents or breaches) can add substantial one-off operational costs if surge operations or large mnestic distributions are required.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.4M

Facilities $550K

[#1] Dedicated study wing renovation: conversion/construct wing at Site-57 with 3–6 beds, interview rooms, medical plumbing, HVAC, soundproofing, and Foundation security.

Mnestic Development $500K

[#7] Mnestic agent development, testing, and initial production validation (development & validation costs).

Surge Contingency $400K

[#25] Emergency rapid-response & surge operations contingency seed fund (maintainable reserve).

Equipment $358K

[#3, #4, #5] Polysomnography/EEG & REM monitoring hardware (4-bed capacity), specialized RF capture & spectrum analysis equipment, and onsite compute/storage hardware (one-time hardware purchases).

Initial Reserve $200K

[#24] Initial insurance/reserve fund for adverse events and compensation contingencies.

Containment Rnd $150K

[#29] Containment-specific R&D / prototype assays and origin-tracing project seed funding (project-based one-time spends).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $138K

[#6] Initial signal analysis / ML software development and custom research tool development (initial dev costs).

Faraday Shielding $80K

[#2] Faraday shielding / RF isolation installation and certification for sleep rooms.

Long Term Cold Storage $30K

[#26] Initial purchase/setup for archival cold-storage (offline tape / cold-cloud initial acquisition).

Controlled Substance Vault $25K

[#8] Secure controlled-substance storage vaults, logging systems, refrigeration and accreditation setup.

Initial Training $15K

[#23] Initial training courses and simulation exercises for mnestic administration, EEG fitting, and safety procedures.

Estimated Totals Note $0

[#30] Analyst-provided aggregate first-year estimate note; included here for traceability (not a separate cost).

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.7M/yr

Staff Wages $1.6M/yr

[#9, #10, #11, #12] Foundation psychiatrist(s), Oneirics/neuroscience research team, EEG/PSG technicians and medical staff, and security staffing (salaries + benefits/fringe).

Insurance And Reserves $175K/yr

[#24] Annual insurance, hazard pay, compensation reserves, and liability contingencies.

Research And Monitoring $150K/yr

[#17, #18] Archival & historical research and field investigations / travel when active (annualized investigative budget).

Mnestic Production $100K/yr

[#7] Ongoing production, QA, and supply of mnestic agents for subject administration.

Cover Story And Legal $88K/yr

[#21] Legal/cover-story/denial and memetic containment budget (PR, legal counsel, FOIA handling).

Data Security $80K/yr

[#19] Cybersecurity, SIEM, privileged access management, air-gapped backups, and hardened network operations.

Post Exposure Care $60K/yr

[#16] Psychotherapy, psychiatric medications, and long-term follow-up care for affected subjects and staff.

Surge Fund Maintenance $50K/yr

[#25] Ongoing maintenance/replenishment of rapid-response & surge operations fund.

Subject Support $41K/yr

[#27] Miscellaneous logistics and consumables for housed subjects (meals, laundry, stipends for up to 4 subjects).

Equipment Maintenance $40K/yr

[#14] Annual maintenance, calibration, warranties for EEG, spectrum analyzers, servers, and periodic Faraday certification.

Facilities Maintenance $35K/yr

[#15] Electricity, climate control, generator fuel and basic facility maintenance for continuous 24/7 operation.

Software Licenses $30K/yr

[#6] Ongoing signal analysis/ML software maintenance and commercial license fees (MATLAB, toolkits).

Ethics Compliance $25K/yr

[#20] Ethics/compliance oversight and IRB administrative costs for human-subjects protocols and mnestic use.

Record Keeping $25K/yr

[#22] Cataloguing, archival preservation, and staff time for transcripts, mnestic logs, and signal files.

Administrative Overhead $25K/yr

[#28] Administrative overhead, secure couriering to O5, encrypted briefings, and classification maintenance.

Supplies And Consumables $20K/yr

[#13] Consumables for polysomnography (disposable EEG electrodes, adhesives, respiratory belts, video backup media).

Training $20K/yr

[#23] Annual refresher training, certification renewals, and simulation exercises for staff.

Offsite Cold Storage $12K/yr

[#5] Recurring cloud/off-site cold storage for continuous EEG/video/RF data backups.

Controlled Substance Compliance $10K/yr

[#8] Annual compliance, audits, and accreditation costs for controlled-substance handling.

Faraday Recertification $10K/yr

[#2] Annual recertification and testing costs for Faraday shielding/RF isolation systems.

Long Term Cold Storage $8K/yr

[#26] Periodic migration and cold-storage maintenance costs for long-term archival data.

Logistics And Transport $0/yr

[]

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.7M/yr

91.0% probability / year

Normal year of operations with no major incidents; standard monitoring, research, and patient care.

routine_monitoring scheduled_research_activities

🚨 Minor Incident $2.8M/yr

8.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline

Localized adverse events such as equipment failure, isolated adverse reactions to mnestics, or small-scale memetic exposure requiring limited surge response and replacement of gear.

equipment_failure isolated_mnestic_adverse_reaction

🚨 Major Breach $4.2M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline

Significant containment failure or mass psychological/memetic event requiring broad surge operations, field deployments, and large-scale mnestic distribution and legal/PR response.

mass_exposure widespread_memetic_spread

👥 Personnel 13 total

Role	Count	Notes
Foundation Psychiatrist	2	[#9] One primary full-time psychiatrist and one part-time/backup psychiatrist for daily interviews and mnestic oversight.
Research Scientist / Oneirics (Lead PI)	1	[#10] Lead researcher/PI for SCP-8018 investigations.
Neuroscientist / Signal Analyst	3	[#10] Neuroscientists/signal analysts performing REM/RF correlation work and experiment design.
Data Scientist	1	[#10] Data scientist for ML analysis and signal-processing pipelines.
Lab Manager	1	[#10] Lab manager to run experiments, maintain schedules, and manage lab personnel.
EEG / PSG Technician	2	[#11] Technicians to fit electrodes nightly, monitor recordings, and maintain equipment.
Medical Officer / Nurse	1	[#11] On-call nurse for adverse reactions to mnestics and routine medical support.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	2	[#12] Level-2 guards for wing access control, vetting of interviewees, and enforcing quarantine procedures.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line-item ranges and clear operational drivers (personnel, mnestics, data/infrastructure), so estimates are moderately well-defined; uncertainty remains due to range variability on mnestic development, surge fund sizing, and project-driven R&D, so confidence is not high.

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