← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-999 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-999
Expected annual
$598K
One-time setup
$502K
Annual recurring
$573K
Personnel
7
One-time startup costs are approximately $470,500, largely driven by containment construction, research setup, and an incident reserve; ongoing annual costs are approximately $573,250/yr driven primarily by staff wages (caretakers + security), recurring research/monitoring, insurance/legal, and contingency. Pursuing optional pharmacological R&D would dramatically increase multi-year costs into the millions.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $502K
Initial Research And Lab Setup $150K
[#19] Initial biochemical/analytical chemistry program (MS, chromatography, toxicology, reagents, subcontract lab fees) for slime characterization.
Incident Reserve $125K
[#16] One-time contingency/reserve fund for potential lawsuits, property damage, or unexpected containment costs.
Facilities $96K
[#1, #2] Construction of a dedicated 4×4 m containment room with chemical-resistant finishes, reinforced viewing, secure door, raised drains, plus HVAC isolation and install ($40k–$120k + $8k–$25k).
Equipment $90K
[#3, #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #21, #22, #18] CCTV systems, sensors/telemetry, climate-controlled candy shelving, cleaning equipment, PPE stations, emergency response kit components, transport crate/vehicle, secure servers and IT/software setup, and initial enrichment items.
Legal Initial And Permits $30K
[#15] Initial legal fees and permits to possess/handle an exotic/unknown organism.
Training And Sop Development $10K
[#17] Development of SOPs and initial intensive training for handlers and staff.
Enrichment Initial $1K
[#18] Initial purchase of toys, soft surfaces and other enrichment items.
Pharmacological R And D Option $0
[#20] Optional large-scale pharmacological R&D not included in baseline. Potential ranges: discovery/preclinical $500k–$2M; IND/GLP $1M–$3M; clinical phases $10M–$200M+. Baseline estimate excludes this.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $573K/yr
Staff Wages $312K/yr
[#5, #6] Wages + benefits for 2 FTE animal handlers (~$112,500) and 4 FTE security officers (~$200,000).
Miscellaneous And Contingency $75K/yr
[#25] Contingency reserve (10–20% of recurring budget) for unanticipated repairs, replacements, or regulatory changes.
Research And Monitoring $66K/yr
[#3, #4, #19, #21] Ongoing storage/maintenance for CCTV (~$2k), sensor calibration (~$1k), follow-up biochemical research (~$60k), and secure data hosting/backups (~$3k).
Cover Story And Legal $50K/yr
[#15, #24] Annual institutional liability insurance and legal retainer (~$40k) plus modest cover/PR or ethics/compliance costs (~$10k).
Veterinary And Medical Support $18K/yr
[#7] Part-time contracted veterinary/medical support (0.1–0.25 FTE equivalent; retainer/fees).
Supplies And Consumables $15K/yr
[#9, #10, #11, #12, #18] Food/candy supplies (~$7k), spoilage/replacement (~$500), cleaning consumables (~$2.5k), PPE replacements/training (~$2k), enrichment replenishment (~$3k).
Facilities Maintenance $14K/yr
[#2, #23] HVAC electricity/filters and pro-rated site utilities/overhead ($2k HVAC; ~$12.5k utilities/overhead).
Medical Surveillance $12K/yr
[#8] Occupational health program, baseline mental health screening, monitoring for dependency/misuse, routine tests (~$5k–$20k).
Logistics And Transport $4K/yr
[#14] Vehicle maintenance, insurance and readiness for emergency transport (~$4k/yr).
Training And Sop Refresher $4K/yr
[#17] Annual refresher training and SOP updates.
It And Software Maintenance $1K/yr
[#22] Scheduling, access control and software maintenance/hosting (~$500–$2k/yr).
Emergency Response Maintenance $1K/yr
[#13] Annual maintenance/training for emergency containment & response kit.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $573K/yr
89.0% probability / year
Normal year with containment, monitoring, routine research follow-ups, and no major incidents.
routine_operations scheduled_research_follow-up regular_maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $598K/yr
8.0% probability / year +$25K vs baseline
Small accidental exposure, minor enclosure damage, or staff injury requiring medical care and modest repairs/PR/legal actions.
accidental_overexposure feeding_error small_containment_damage
🚨 Major Breach $873K/yr
1.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline
Public exposure or larger containment breach leading to significant legal, PR, repair, and replacement costs.
unauthorized_offsite_movement public_exposure large_scale_property_damage
🚨 Research Breakthrough Requiring Scale Up $1.6M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline
Discovery of pharmacologically valuable compounds leading to initiation of costly R&D and regulatory programs.
isolation_of_active_compounds decision_to_pursue_drug_development external_partnerships/clinical_trials
👥 Personnel 7 total
Role Count Notes
Animal Technician / Handler 2 [#5] Two full-time handlers to cover daily feeding, cleaning, enrichment, and supervised interactions.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 4 [#6] Four full-time security personnel for perimeter/site security and enforcement of no off-site rules.
Veterinary / Medical Support (contractor) 1 [#7] Part-time contracted veterinary/medical support (0.1–0.25 FTE equivalent) available as needed.
📋 Confidence Notes
Containment and staffing costs are well-characterized and based on provided estimates; uncertainty remains for research follow-ups, optional pharmacological R&D (large range), and site-specific overhead which reduces confidence to medium.
← SCP-998 ↑ All SCPs SCP-1000 →