The Nuclear Physicist perk in the Intelligence attribute line boosts radiation weapon damage. Unless I missed something I didnt see a perk boost to energy weapons, yet there are the traditional boosts to heavy, rifle, automatic, and handgun weapons. So I assume this has replaced the former line of energy weapon boosts. Correct?

I'm pretty sure Energy weapons are included in the regular perks like Rifleman , depending on how they fire. I haven't actually found a radation weapon yet but they sound like an entirely different line of weapons.

Not 100% sure but I believe weapons are not divided in to energy and balistic anymore. Rifle perk should work on laser and plasma rifles just like it works on all other rifles. Same for auto weapons or hanguns.

I like it much more this way. After all, there is not much difference if you shoot laser rifle or balistic one. Old division felt articicial and arbitrary. Especialy in NV where Obsidian made all those cathgories equal.

There absolutely is a distinction between ballistic and energy weapons. Radiation is a third type, which is why you've got three different damage resistance values.

I'm not sure if perks like rifleman and commando affect both ballistic and energy weapons or just ballistic weapons, which was the origin question, but they're definitely different damage types that are resisted by different armor values.

Not as long as skills/perks are concerned (with exception of crafting of course).

I believe radiation weapons are its own kind of weapons that deal radiation damage, separate from energy weapons.

The only distinction between energy weapons and ballistic is simply their damage types, which share the same name. Besides that, perks such as Rifleman, Commando, and Gunslinger effect any weapon that falls under what the perk says, be it energy or not.

Now, I have yet to see radiation weapons so I'm not sure what they do, but I have a feeling the Nuclear Physicist perk is there because radiation weapons fire differently from being either automatic or non automatic.