Video Details
In this video, I’ll be showing you where to find nuclear material, a particularly rare resource that you’ll need for weapon mods, power armor mods, high-output generators, and other various applications. While noticeably less plentiful when compared to other materials found throughout Appalachia, a fair number of options exist for keeping a constant supply on hand, particularly when it comes to workshops.
While maps displayed in these supplemental notes have been resized down from their original 4096px by 4096px resolution, links are provided to view the full image in a new tab below each map. All maps were generated using the latest release of Mappalachia.
Workshops
When it comes to workshops, your best source for nuclear material will always be Federal Disposal Field HZ-21, where you can place 3 nuclear extractors to a combined total of 60 pieces of uranium ore per hour. From there, you’ll need to smelt the ore down into nuclear material, which can be done at a chemistry workbench, with 2 scraps of nuclear material costing 5 pieces of ore plus 5 acid. Make sure to equip the Super Duper perk card prior to smelting for up to a 30% chance of getting double the scraps each time you smelt. Assuming that you’re using a fully leveled super duper card and are frequently visiting the workshop to empty out the extractors (which have a 10-ore capacity limit), you can expect to generate between 12 to 15 scraps of nuclear material an hour.
Other select workshops can also viable options, with the following allowing for the placement of one nuclear extractor:
- Poseidon Energy Plant Yard (main resource: fusion cores)
- Monongah Plant Yard (main resource: fusion cores)
- Thunder Mountain Power Plant Yard (main resource: fusion cores)
- Red Rocket Mega Stop (main resource: aluminum)
Scrapping
The highest yielding items for scrapping nuclear material are icher sacs (2 scraps), which can be picked up from downed blood bugs, and radscorpion stringers (2 scraps), which, as the name suggests, can be picked up from downed radscorpions. One of each item can be looted from corpses in the Enclave Research Facility, and radscorpion stingers can sometime be found in meat piles located in the Savage Divide region.
In terms of common junk items, a single piece of nuclear material can be scrapped from the following items:
- biometric scanners
- blast radius board games
- high powered magnets
- nuclear waste
- rad poker board games
- volatile material boxes
- Wakemaster alarm clocks
Below is a map detailing where these junk items can be found in the open world:
In terms of interior cells, the Kanawha NukaCola Plant contains nine scraps of nuclear waste, most of which are located in the Snackability Research and Development Lab and it’s locked backroom, which also contains a NukaCola Cranberry.
Nuclear material can also be scrapped from some rarer items, including mini nuke detonator shells, mini nuke hemisphere cores (1 scrap), vault-tac alarm clocks, and radioactive glands. Each of these items contains one scrap of material.
The mini nuke components can be found in the Watoga Underground, along with several potential fusion cores (in testing, some didn’t spawn in at expected locations). To find the mini nuke components, proceed through the Underground until you pass through an automotive maintenance area and can see the first silo ahead of you. Use the terminal in the office on the right to unlock the door in the office to the left (see video for further details), which leads into a large storage area, where you’ll find the items.
The vault-tec alarm clocks can be found in Fort Defiance, once in a western-facing room off the southernmost hallway of the building, 3rd floor, and the other in a western-facing room off the northernmost hallway, 2nd floor.
Radioactive glands can rarely be found in meat piles, however, I was not able to locate any while confirming details for this video. In the process, I did discover that radscorpion stingers can sometimes be found in meat piles (2 scraps of material each), but this seemed to only occur in piles located in the Savage Divide. This includes the dozens of piles found inside the West Tek Research Center.
Finally, nuclear material can sometimes be found when looting enemies that have been gooified by energy weapons such as the gatling plasma or ultracite gatling laser. This makes events like Radiation Rumble great sources of nuclear material, assuming that players with legacy plasma gatlings participate and you (or your team) get hits in on most enemies.
Mining
Something I didn’t realize until doing research for this video is that you can in fact mine uranium ore, but only 60 nodes exist across the map, spread mostly between the ash heap and cranberry bog. With that being said, mining probably isn’t the most viable option for farming nuclear material.
If you do decide to mine uranium ore, remember to use a full set of Excavator power armor when collecting the ore so that you get double the normal amount, and equip the Super Duper perk before smelting the ore into scrap at a Chemistry Workbench.
C.A.M.P. Placement
If you want to ensure that you always have access to at least some amount of nuclear material, you can strategically place your camp at the sight of a uranium ore deposit and build a resource collector on top of it, which will provide you with up to 20 pieces of uranium ore per hour. Just keep in mind that a nuclear extractor has a capacity limit of 10, so you’ll need to drop by your CAMP every so often to empty out new ore to receive the highest possible yield.
