SCP-8684 — SCP-8684 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-8684 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-8684

Expected annual

$1.6M

One-time setup

$2.7M

Annual recurring

$1.6M

Personnel

First-year one-time costs are dominated by land purchase/site hardening, containment construction and a contingency reserve (~$2.72M total one-time). Ongoing annual costs are driven by staff wages, recurring research/outsourcing, surveillance and contractor budgets (~$1.556M/year).

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $2.7M

Contingency Reserve $1.0M

[#28] One-time escalation/reserve fund for rapid relocation, legal exposure, advanced research, destruction or other unforeseen high-cost escalation (set-aside, mid-range).

Facilities $720K

[#1, #3, #4, #8] Site acquisition, ground survey/excavation, perimeter hardening, and construction of a reinforced containment cell; includes land purchase (mid-range), several-weeks survey/excavation, fencing/gating/concrete cap, and hardened room buildout (mid-range).

Equipment $582K

[#6, #7, #9, #10, #11, #15, #16, #23] One-time hardware and device purchases: electronic surveillance install, short-term recovery/handling gear, specialized restraints/mounts, cold-storage units, backup generator/UPS, remote manipulators/robotics, PPE/decon equipment, and initial secure IT/server hardware.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $235K

[#13, #14] Initial program and instruments for forensic pathology/autopsy testing and molecular/biochemical program (sequencing/proteomics/microscopy) — program-level startup costs (outsourced BSL work assumed rather than full in-house BSL upgrade).

Legal And Cover Setup $50K

[#2] One-time costs to establish shell ownership, title work, easements, local counsel, permits, and initial cover-story creation/NDAs.

Bsl Outsourcing Setup $50K

[#12] Initial fees/arrangement costs for outsourcing higher-containment testing (if avoiding in-house BSL-3 upgrade); per-project setup for contractor access and sampling transfer.

Training Setup $35K

[#20] Initial SOP development, 6–12 months of initial staff training and drills setup.

Sample Archiving $25K

[#27] One-time setup for long-term sample bank infrastructure and off-site duplicate storage provisioning.

Media And Opsec Setup $20K

[#22] Initial media monitoring/OPSEC setup, community management budget for initial period.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $1.6M/yr

Staff Wages $960K/yr

[#5, #19] Ongoing salaries, benefits and training for continuous coverage: security guards (6–8), project lead, scientists/pathologists, lab techs, medic, forensic archaeologist; mid-range aggregated salary + benefits.

Research And Monitoring $175K/yr

[#13, #14, #12] Recurring programmatic research: follow-up autopsies/forensic testing (~$50k/yr) and ongoing molecular/biochemical research and reagents (mid-range ~$125k/yr); includes some outsourced testing fees as needed.

Contractor Outsourcing $100K/yr

[#29] Annual budget for outsourcing specialized tests, BSL-4 work, high-temp disposal, heavy lifting and other contractor needs (variable by scope).

Supplies And Consumables $53K/yr

[#7, #16, #26] Replacement of recovery/handling consumables, PPE consumables/laundry/waste handling, and routine lab consumables/reagents (aggregated mid-range).

Cover Story And Legal $50K/yr

[#22] Ongoing media monitoring, OPSEC, social-engineering budget and local community management/legal retainer for cover story maintenance.

Emergency Response Contract $50K/yr

[#21] Retainer for on-call hazmat/medevac and rapid-response providers (mid-range).

Administrative Overhead $25K/yr

[#23] Records security, IT maintenance, encrypted backups, and classified records management ongoing costs.

Periodic Review $25K/yr

[#30] Annual/internal audits, legal reviews and compliance work to maintain cover and plausibility.

Facilities Maintenance $24K/yr

[#10, #11, #25] Ongoing power, cold-storage maintenance and generator fuel contracts, plus site upkeep (road, vegetation, utilities) for a rural site (mid-range).

Specialized Robotics Maintenance $20K/yr

[#15] Maintenance and calibration for remote manipulators/robotic systems and teleoperation components.

Hazardous Disposal $20K/yr

[#17] Annual planning/periodic licensed high-temp disposal or incineration costs (budgeted mid-range for occasional disposals).

Logistics And Transport $14K/yr

[#18] Secure/refrigerated transport and escorted moves (assumes a small number of moves per year; per-move costs aggregated).

Psychological Care $12K/yr

[#24] Counseling, rotation and support services for staff exposed to traumatic material.

Electronic Surveillance And Monitoring $10K/yr

[#6] Annual monitoring, cloud/storage costs, alarm service and periodic drone flyovers.

Training And Drills $10K/yr

[#20] Periodic refresher training, SOP updates and drills.

Sample Archiving $8K/yr

[#27] Ongoing costs for cryostorage, off-site duplication and archival maintenance.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $1.6M/yr

94.0% probability / year

Normal year with no containment incidents; recurring operations continue as planned.

routine operations scheduled research no containment incidents

🚨 Minor Incident $1.7M/yr

5.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline

Localized containment event or discovery that requires emergency response, extra testing and limited remediation.

localized leak/partial containment breach unexpected fragment activity requiring extra testing single disposal event

🚨 Major Breach $3.1M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline

Significant containment failure or public exposure requiring relocation, large-scale disposal, heavy legal/cover operations and major research escalation.

major containment failure public exposure/media/legal escalation need for full relocation or large-scale destruction

👥 Personnel 16 total

Role	Count	Notes
Project Lead	1	[#19] Senior researcher/project manager overseeing program.
Research Scientist / Biologist / Pathologist	3	[#13, #14, #19] Scientists conducting autopsy, molecular and biochemical research.
Lab Technician	2	[#14, #19] Technicians supporting assays, sample prep and routine lab operations.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	8	[#5, #19] 24/7 site guards across shifts (6–8 recommended); count set at 8 for redundancy.
Medical Officer	1	[#19] On-call medic for staff and emergency response.
Forensic Archaeologist / Anthropologist	1	[#3, #19] Specialist for surveying, controlled excavation and fragment handling.
Administrative Staff	0	[#23] Administrative/IT functions assumed covered by contractors/overhead rather than dedicated full-time hires in this budget.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges, allowing mid-range budgeting, but choices (outsourcing vs in-house BSL upgrade, exact land price, research intensity, and incident frequency) introduce material uncertainty; estimates use midpoints and conservative contingency.

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