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SCP-873 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-873
Expected annual
$9.6M
One-time setup
$654.6M
Annual recurring
$9.5M
Personnel
23
Estimated one-time setup costs are approximately $655M driven primarily by deep-underground vault construction and site remediation; recurring annual costs are roughly $9.5M driven by staff wages, site utilities, secure data archival, and legal/cover operations.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $654.6M
Facilities $627.5M
[#1, #2, #3, #25] Excavation and construction of a ≥2000m concrete-lined vault (including land acquisition, covert ownership/legal setup, geotechnical surveys) and eventual decommissioning/remediation costs; combined estimate uses mid-to-upper range for deep hard-rock construction and remediation.
Equipment $24.9M
[#4, #5, #7, #8, #10, #12, #16] One-time installation of power infrastructure and redundant generators, HVAC/ventilation/dewatering systems, vibration/isolation mounts, surveillance cameras and housings, initial secure data SAN/NAS hardware, initial encryption/HSM appliances, and on-site medical/containment equipment.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $1.1M
[#18] Initial quantum-optics and spectroscopy lab buildout (single-photon detectors, spectrometers, lasers, optical tables, calibration gear).
Initial Relocation $1.0M
[#17] Initial secure relocation/transfer cost from existing site to deep-vault site (armored/escorted convoy or airlift, SOPs, decoy shipments) — one-time large-move estimate.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $9.5M/yr
Staff Wages $3.7M/yr
[#13, #14, #15, #16] Salaries and benefits for dedicated staff: network/security engineers (sysadmins), Level 4 research staff (rotations/clearance maintenance), armed/cleared security roster and managers, on-site medical staff and emergency response personnel.
Cover Story And Legal $1.5M/yr
[#20] Recurring legal, cover-up, disinformation, and contingency PR/compensation budgets to preserve plausible deniability and respond to leaks.
Contingency Fund $1.2M/yr
[#24] Reserve fund (15% of baseline operating costs) for unexpected anomalous behavior, emergency relocation, accelerated research, or containment failure.
Facilities Maintenance $1.1M/yr
[#6] Ongoing site utilities and operations: power generation fuel, electricity, pumping/dewatering, HVAC energy, routine systems maintenance.
Logistics And Transport $725K/yr
[#17, #21] Recurring secure transport budget for escorted transfers (per-transfer allowances and occasional movement) plus travel/leasing costs for secure transport of Level 4 personnel and on-site accommodation logistics.
Research And Monitoring $560K/yr
[#10, #11, #18, #19] Ongoing data hardware replacement/expansion, bandwidth/storage/encoding costs for archival video, maintenance/consumables for quantum-optics lab, and historical/research consultant contracts.
Cybersecurity Ops $300K/yr
[#12] Ongoing cybersecurity operations, HSM/key-management maintenance, intrusion detection monitoring, and regular audits.
Auditing And Compliance $175K/yr
[#23] Internal audits, O5 approval workflows, logging audits, and clearance/governance overhead.
Supplies And Consumables $112K/yr
[#22] Consumables, replacement optics/filters, spare electronics, UPS batteries, calibration supplies and small instrumentation replacements.
Surveillance Maintenance $18K/yr
[#9] Camera/optics calibration, cleaning, firmware/security updates and periodic replacement cycles.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $9.5M/yr
94.5% probability / year
Normal year with steady operations, routine maintenance, and no anomalous escalation or containment incidents.
routine_operations scheduled_maintenance no_incident
🚨 Minor Incident $9.7M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$250K vs baseline
Localized equipment failure, brief power outage, minor data integrity issue, or small anomalous effect requiring repair, extra staffing, and short-term research.
equipment_failure localized_power_outage data_integrity_issue
🚨 Major Breach $34.5M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$25.0M vs baseline
Significant containment breach or structural failure requiring emergency mobilization, possible relocation/decommissioning, large-scale legal/cover-up response and accelerated research.
containment_breach structural_failure anomalous_escalation
👥 Personnel 23 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist (Level 4) 4 [#14] Level 4 researchers with O5 approval and rotation; salaries and benefits included in staff_wages.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 14 [#15] Armed/cleared security roster and managers for 24/7 coverage at remote deep site; costed in staff_wages.
Network Engineer / Sysadmin 3 [#13] Dedicated secure-network operations and monitoring staff (high-clearance) to maintain encrypted archives and respond to attempts at intrusion.
Medical Officer 2 [#16] On-site medics and emergency response personnel; staffing costs included in staff_wages.
📋 Confidence Notes
Line items are based on domain analogues (deep-mine/SNOLAB) and explicit analyst ranges; large uncertainty remains in geology, choice of existing-vs-new facility, retention policy for archival data, and frequency of high-cost incidents, hence medium confidence.
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