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SCP-9985 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-9985
Expected annual
$3.8M
One-time setup
$60.8M
Annual recurring
$3.1M
Personnel
16
Initial one-time containment/setup costs are dominated by large contingency reserves (legal and catastrophic) producing a total one-time estimate of roughly $60.8M; steady-state annual costs (~$3.09M) are driven primarily by staff wages (security + cryptanalysis + medics), MTF/readiness and legal/PR retainers.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $60.8M
Catastrophic Contingency Reserve $50.0M
[#16] Catastrophic-incident contingency / insurance-equivalent reserve (actuarial reserve for large-scale disasters).
Legal Contingency Reserve $10.0M
[#15] Staged legal/settlement reserve (initial seed of a larger contingency; analyst recommended $5M–$50M).
Equipment $328K
[#1, #2, #8, #9, #11, #20, #21, #23] Secure locker and containment cameras/hardware, redundant air-gapped copy hardware, forensic workstations & licenses (hardware portion), on-prem GPU cluster (hardware portion), HSM/hardened storage (hardware portion), spare hardware clones, secure logging/redaction hardware/software initial purchase.
Decommissioning Or Destruction $250K
[#27] Costs associated with attempting safe destruction or indefinite sequestration (specialized contractors/procedures/legal approvals).
External Contractors One Time $100K
[#26] One-time external contract / academic partnership payments (initial retainer / specialized engagement).
Personnel Vetting One Time $50K
[#19] Initial intensive background checks, polygraphs and psychiatric screening for core ~20 staff (initial tranche).
Training And Protocol Development One Time $40K
[#24] Initial SOP writing, course development, tabletop exercise creation and protocol documentation.
Facilities $16K
[#2, #22] Structural/install portion of local perimeter/CCTV and power/environmental/test-room hookup (wiring, redundant power/UPS/HVAC install).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $15K
[#7] Air-gapped laboratory/sandbox buildout (Faraday cage, isolated bench, write-blockers, dedicated peripherals, UPS).
Transport And Seizure $10K
[#6] Chain-of-custody transport and initial seizure logistics (armored courier/transit insurance; domestic baseline estimate).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.1M/yr
Staff Wages $1.3M/yr
[#4, #5, #10, #12] Dedicated security guards (6 FTEs), supervisory/access-control staff, cryptanalysis/reverse-engineering team salaries, small in-house medic/EMT team.
Logistics And Transport $1.0M/yr
[#17] MTF readiness posture and deployment-readiness training budget / ongoing deployment readiness (training, equipment, transport readiness).
Research And Monitoring $306K/yr
[#8, #9, #11, #13, #14, #23, #24] Secure storage rotation, software maintenance/licenses, cloud GPU rental (operational cryptanalysis), test planning/approval labor, controlled testing program budget, documentation/transcription/redaction recurring costs, refresher training & exercises.
Cover Story And Legal $300K/yr
[#15] Annual legal/PR retainer, cover-story maintenance and routine legal overhead (excludes large settlement reserves).
External Contractors Recurring $50K/yr
[#26] Recurring contractor retainers or periodic external consultancy fees if internal efforts stall.
Site Allocation Overhead $50K/yr
[#18] Prorated share of Site-64 running costs: facilities, utilities, command & control overhead.
It Security And Audit $20K/yr
[#20] Ongoing HSM/air-gapped storage administration, audits, sysadmin labor for safeguarding SCP-9985-2 copy.
Personnel Vetting Recurring $10K/yr
[#19] Periodic recertification, rechecks, polygraph/psychiatric follow-ups.
Facilities Maintenance $7K/yr
[#2, #3, #22] CCTV/cloud storage retention & maintenance, camera/sensor upkeep, UPS/HVAC energy & basic maintenance.
Supplies And Consumables $6K/yr
[#21, #25] Spare/consumable hardware replacement parts, batteries, USB write-blockers, evidence bags, PPE, small lab consumables.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.1M/yr
89.0% probability / year
Normal year with no major incidents; steady-state containment, research, and readiness activities only.
routine_research no_breach scheduled_tests_only
🚨 Minor Incident $4.0M/yr
10.0% probability / year +$950K vs baseline
Localized misuse or small containment incident requiring MTF deployment, legal response and additional forensic work.
unauthorized_run small_breach localized_accident
🚨 Catastrophic Incident $63.1M/yr
1.0% probability / year +$60.0M vs baseline
Major accident or event (e.g., large casualty event, public disaster) caused by misuse/experiment necessitating disaster response and large settlements.
experiment_causes_major_accident airline_crash high_casualty_event
👥 Personnel 16 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 6 [#4] Six guards (3 shifts × 2 guards) providing 24/7 physical security for the locker/storage room.
Level-3 Security Officer / Access Control 2 [#5] Supervisory/access-control staff responsible for permissions, auditing, and access gating.
Research Scientist / Cryptanalysis Team 6 [#10] Cryptographers, kernel reverse-engineers and analysts (typical small team: 2senior cryptographers, 2 kernel devs, 2 analysts).
Medical Officer 2 [#12] Small in-house medics/EMT for standby during experiments and emergency response.
📋 Confidence Notes
Line-item ranges and staffing assumptions are well-detailed but key high-impact reserves (legal/catastrophic) and incident probabilities are highly uncertain; mid-level confidence in steady-state recurring estimates, low confidence in catastrophic cost sizing.
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