I think everyone forgets that this is set in the future... It just looks like the 50's. They are more experienced in nuke tech than we are now.

EMP damage basically causes any delicate wires to generate a charge that fries them. Imagine connecting your PC to a 3-phase electrical supply.

A lot of military tech is hardened against EMP damage even today. Plus anything built AFTER the emp has gone off wouldn't be affected. With all the fission batteries you come across (even back in Fallout 3) you would have enough juice to run anything. Even your Pip-Boy is probably run on micro nuke piles.

I was under the impression in Fallout 3 that nuclear power plants may be still operational somewhere close to DC. In Fallout 3, it mentions fission and fusion and geothermal power. Also Dr Li was working on fusion battery research

While I completely agree with all of this it doesn't change the fact that the settlements are using generators either solely, or in conjunction with other power sources

In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, if you look closely to anything powered, like a light, it's usually connected to what I have always assumed is some sort of incredibly long lifed battery.

yes, but that magnet has to be spun. the million dollar question is how do you keep the magnet turning

The Secret Union of Ghouls. When one goes out, they send a guy. Until then, Union Coffee break.

Crank generator.... Just like the laser musket.

nah, even nuclear power plants have to have the fuel rods changed out every so many years. and it's not all that many, decade or so.

would work for something very small, but that's about it. I remember one from when I was in school, could light a small bulb and that was about it.

There's more than one generator that can be crafted, so perhaps the larger the generator, the different power source it'll need.

Probably the Robobrain robots maintain the power stations... while talking in that sixy voice. The store of backup rods would have to be huge though... and all that nuclear waste... ouch!

Well all those droids in those places gotta be programmed to do SOMETHING, y'know?

I hear a bunch of those Robobrains are dating Fisto.

Talk about your long distance relationships.

Then again, it's probably all over wifi. Internal chat programs.

But who is to say where the power station is located... There may be one in the desert outside New Vegas.

Hmmm.... thinking about it, if there was one then they wouldn't be depending on the dam for power... but hey, I diverted the juice to power my toy blaster hehe. Nothing like an orbital weapon platform to ruin anyone's day. HEY... They might be in orbit and beam the power to the ground. If they can beam the power up to the weapon platform they can do it the other way too.

The best bet is a turbine either wind or hydro, but as said above some raiders in a giant hamster wheel would also do the job.

Also on the fallout wiki if you search generator there are more than a few examples of different types of generators being used in both CW and the mohave.

That's the Gennys

Several older power plants are running or can be brought to operational service (Old Olney Powerworks, Vault-Tec generators, Hoover Dam). 99% of the tech seen in Fallout is (or is implied to be) minaturized vacuum tubes, which are resilient to EMPs. The bombs in Fallout are basically giant dirty bombs (otherwise, DC would be a series of radioactive craters than ruins); they do get a nuclear reaction going , but it's not in the same style as modern real-world bombs, so the EMP aspect is likely lessened.

And, of course, fission batteries and microfusion cells are... well, tiny nuclear reactors that can keep going for centuries, it looks like. Plus, plenty of gas or diesel generators from pre-war that wouldn't be affected by a EMP. Major issue there is finding fuel for 'em.

We can plant 'taters... so It'd be cool to be able to manufacture our own booze. Use some as fuel, give some to the traders that live within the settlement, and ship the rest off on the caravans.

Only in real life. In the Fallout universe there is a wealth of impossible tech. The Mr Handy's lift jets are physically impossible, the idea of handheld 'lasers' that can disintegrate a human body is ludicrous, there's no way those tiny 'fission batteries' (whatever they are - certainly not real-world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery) could produce enough power for a protectron after 200 years, and as for those microfusion cells powering those impossible lasers...

Nah, in the Fallout universe it's entirely possible that nuclear power plants could keep running without maintenance for several hundred years - except when the plot calls for them to either fail or abruptly blow up

Scraqe off irradiated soil and place it in Underground Sealed Bunkers. Build Ghoul driven Generators in Irradiated Bunkers. Use Ferals and Glowing Ones as Motive Power sources.

The Radiation feeds and heals the Ghouls

The Fallout Universe has already faced the Energy Crisis, and sources of Energy that seem more Fictional than Realistic like Tidal Generation and Lightning Collection through Capacitors may be common.

I dunno, I used to work with lasers, and the tech has come a long way over the years, and combat lasers are a thing. A handheld disintegration beam is pretty scifi but it's not the most impossible thing in Fallout.

Fission batteries

While combat lasers are in development, I gather the most immediate practical anti-personnel use relies on blinding opponents with very intense but brief burst of laser light, and they rely on the extreme fragility of the retina. However, the amount of raw power needed to first boil away the water in a person and then incinerate the dried remains to ash would be staggering. I believe just to evaporate the water would need well over 100MJ, while the COIL laser used in (discontinued) anti-missile laser tests was in the MJ range ("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1#COIL")

The idea of having something far, far more powerful than that in an affordable device the size of a Fallout laser rifle is pretty ludicrous. Maybe not theoretically impossible, but practically ludicrous. And, as you say, they're not the most impossible thing in Fallout - so centuries old working nuclear power stations would be practically humdrum in FO4

Along these lines, I've been wondering where all the new powerarmor, vertibirds and even just standard 10mm pistols come from. Does the Enclave/Brotherhood have factories to manufacture these things or are they all refurbished 200+ year old stuff?

Maybe it slowly trickles across from the NCR. They must have factories of some sort. Hell Gun Runners aren't just refurbing old crap. And there should be some kind of industry going on in Boston, if they have the capacity to produce lifelike androids, 10mm pistols shouldn't be too hard.