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SCP-8628 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-8628
Expected annual
$260K
One-time setup
$425K
Annual recurring
$240K
Personnel
3
One-time setup ~ $425k mainly driven by initial mass transcription, digital preservation infrastructure, and contingency/reserve; recurring annual costs ~ $240k driven primarily by staff wages (transcription and research), administrative overhead, and security/legal liaison.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $425K
Initial Mass Transcription $250K
[#6] One-time mass transcription/digitization project (55,000+ pages): labor hours, project management, transcribers, editors, metadata tagging, plus ~$10k project overhead.
Contingency Fund $62K
[#20] Contingency / reserve for anomaly escalation, emergency preservation, or unexpected surge in activity.
Equipment $36K
[#2, #5, #9] Archival safe/furniture and archival housing; high-resolution imaging hardware (camera/copy stand/lighting/software initial purchase); on-prem server/SAN/backup hardware (one-time infrastructure).
Facilities $22K
[#3] Climate control / small dedicated HVAC and environmental monitoring loop installation (one-time).
Forensic Analysis $15K
[#12] One-time forensic package: ink/pigment/paper analysis, radiocarbon/multispectral imaging, lab testing.
Secure Storage Upgrade $14K
[#1] Secure storage locker hardware upgrade (tamper sensors, dedicated CCTV, intrusion logging, write-once audit trails) one-time hardware cost.
Replica Fabrication $12K
[#13] Replica fabrication and specialist conservator fees for creating exact replica to return to external institution.
Training And Sop Development $8K
[#17] One-time SOP and training program development for handling, transcription, memetic screening, and security procedures.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $5K
[#4] Initial conservation assessment and initial preservation/treatment (deacidification/minor repairs) as a one-time research/conservation setup cost.
Appraisal $1K
[#19] One-time appraisal fee for valuation (if outsourced).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $240K/yr
Staff Wages $150K/yr
[#7, #8, #11] Ongoing personnel: recommended 1.0 FTE transcription technician (~$70k), combined historian/linguist + data analyst research time (~$60k), plus QA/project management time (~$20k).
Administrative Overhead $22K/yr
[#22] Opportunity cost / administrative & site overhead allocation (estimated at ~15% of recurring operating costs).
Cover Story And Legal $18K/yr
[#14] Ongoing legal retainer, liaison funding, covert coordination with external institution, and cover-story maintenance.
Security Marginal $18K/yr
[#16] Marginal security staffing costs: overtime, two-person rule coverage, and incremental guard-hours for supervised access.
Logistics And Transport $10K/yr
[#15] Secure courier/armored/covert transport runs, occasional transfers to external labs, and contingency transport budget.
Ocr And Software Licenses $6K/yr
[#10] Handwriting recognition / OCR / transcription workflow software licensing and occasional compute costs.
It Storage And Backup $4K/yr
[#9] Recurring on-prem/cloud storage operations, backups, and maintenance for high-res images and dossier backups (estimated mid-range).
Forensic Followup $3K/yr
[#12] Periodic or ad-hoc forensic testing budget if new analyses are required.
Insurance Premium $3K/yr
[#19] Nominal insurance premium (or proxy cost if Foundation outsources appraisal/coverage).
Training Refreshers $2K/yr
[#17] Annual refresher training and SOP updates.
Secure Storage Maintenance $2K/yr
[#1] Maintenance and monitoring subscription/repair costs for tamper sensors/CCTV and write-once audit systems.
Facilities Maintenance $1K/yr
[#3] Incremental HVAC/monitoring energy & calibration and routine environmental maintenance.
Supplies And Consumables $1K/yr
[#18] Archival gloves, scanner consumables, acid-free folders, labeling supplies, PPE, and other consumables.
Long Term Digital Preservation $1K/yr
[#21] Amortized costs for file format migrations, checksum revalidation, integrity audits, and periodic preservation work.
Imaging Maintenance $300/yr
[#5] Annual maintenance/calibration for high-resolution imaging hardware and minor software upkeep.
Research And Monitoring $0/yr
[]
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $240K/yr
85.0% probability / year
Normal uneventful year: routine transcription, preservation, and standard operations without major incidents.
steady_daily_page_rate no major conservation events no legal exposure
🚨 Minor Incident $310K/yr
10.0% probability / year +$70K vs baseline
Temporary surge in new pages or an isolated conservation emergency requiring short-term contractors and emergency treatment.
surge_in_new_pages emergency_conservation temporary_contractors
🚨 Political Exposure $340K/yr
3.0% probability / year +$100K vs baseline
External institution discovers discrepancy or public exposure requiring intensive legal/liaison, record retconning, and additional covert payments.
museum_detection public_inquiry legal_dispute
🚨 Major Breach $740K/yr
2.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Containment escalation or emergence of cognitohazardous properties requiring specialized containment, quarantine, and accelerated research/mitigation.
memetic_escalation major_containment_breach widespread_exposure
👥 Personnel 3 total
Role Count Notes
Research Assistant / Transcription Technician 1 Primary daily transcription & QA oversight; budgeted at approximately $70,000/yr (covers #7, #11).
Research Scientist / Historian-Linguist 1 Ongoing content analysis and historical research (0.25–0.5 FTE typical), budgeted contribution ~$60,000/yr (covers #8).
Administrative / Project Manager 1 Project management, metadata oversight, QA coordination for mass transcription, budgeted ~$20,000/yr (covers project oversight from #6 and QA #11).
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges, enabling a reasonable mid-range estimate; uncertainty remains due to wide ranges on labor (transcription) and legal/cover-up variability, so confidence is medium.
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