Last week I was standing in the Pentalabs lab in Munich's industrial district, watching engineer Markus Weber test an electron tube the size of a beer bottle. On the oscilloscope screen, a sine wave danced – the signal was amplified eightfold.
«These things still outperform semiconductors in certain applications», Weber said, adjusting the anode voltage. «The military still buys them. And guitarists, of course.»
The question of whether it's possible to recreate Fallout's technological universe – with its tube computers and atomic batteries – hooked me a month ago. The game's setting describes an alternate reality where the transistor was never invented, and all electronics relied on vacuum tubes. Meanwhile, people managed to build portable nuclear reactors the size of a suitcase.
Vacuum Tubes vs. Silicon: Performance Comparison
Tubes vs. Silicon: Who Wins?
First stop: the JJ Electronic plant on the outskirts of Munich. They still manufacture electron tubes for audiophiles and musicians. Chief technologist Andreas Schmidt walks me through the production line.
«Tubes never really disappeared», he explains as we pass furnaces sealing glass bulbs at 450 degrees Celsius. «In some fields, they're still irreplaceable.»
Military and aerospace applications continue to rely on vacuum tubes for their reliability and immunity to electromagnetic pulses. Unlike semiconductors, tubes can withstand brief high-voltage surges and keep working in high-radiation environments.
«Imagine a nuclear war», Schmidt continues. «The EMP from a blast would fry every semiconductor in a radius of hundreds of kilometers. Tubes, though, would just keep running as if nothing happened.»
But there's a catch. Tubes consume dozens of times more energy than transistors, generate lots of heat, and take up space. A modern smartphone built on tubes would be the size of a refrigerator and draw power like an electric kettle.
«If the transistor hadn't been invented, we'd still be lugging around suitcase-sized radios», Schmidt laughs.
Portable Nuclear Power: Current Technologies
Nuclear Power in Your Pocket
The second Fallout-style component – portable nuclear power sources – is trickier, but they do exist.
At the Technical University of Munich's research center, nuclear physicist Dr. Klaus Meier shows me a metal cylinder the size of a thermos.
«This is a mock-up of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator – RTG», he explains. «Real ones have been flying on space missions for half a century.»
The Curiosity rover has been running on an MMRTG since August 2012. These devices convert heat from radioactive decay into electricity and can operate for decades without servicing.
«The principle is simple», Meier sketches a diagram on a board. «You take a radioactive isotope, like plutonium-238. It decays, giving off heat. Thermoelectric elements turn the temperature difference into electricity. You've got yourself a nuclear battery.»
Back in 1954, RCA researched a small atomic battery for portable radios and hearing aids. In other words, the idea of portable nuclear power sources dates exactly to the era Fallout depicts.
But there are caveats. First, plutonium-238 is extremely expensive to produce – about $8,000 per gram. Second, these devices are radioactive, after all.
«Carrying an RTG in your backpack isn't the smartest idea», Meier warns. «You need shielding, temperature control. In space that's fine – but on Earth...»
New Generation of Nuclear Batteries
Modern Nuclear Batteries
Technology doesn't stand still. In March this year, Korean scientists at DGIST unveiled a fundamentally new type of nuclear battery.
«Their device converts beta radiation directly into electricity, skipping the thermal stage», explains Markus Neumann, a nuclear physics professor at TUM who studied their paper.
The Daegu Gyeongbuk IST team created a nuclear battery that turns radiation straight into electricity for centuries – and it's even safer than lithium cells.
«The efficiency is still low, around one percent», Neumann adds. «But for low-power electronics, that may be enough. Picture sensors that run for a hundred years without a battery change.»
Future of Nuclear Power Packs
Nuclear Power Packs of the Future
A new generation of relatively small, factory-built nuclear reactors – plug-and-play units designed for autonomous operation – is on the horizon, MIT experts report.
At NuScale Power's lab near Munich, engineer Thomas Müller shows me a model of a modular reactor the size of a shipping container.
«This isn't sci-fi», he says. «It delivers 77 megawatts, runs fully autonomously. You can set it up anywhere.»
These mini-reactors are designed like batteries: install, connect, and forget about them for 20 years. No servicing, no operators.
«Basically, they're Fallout's 'fusion cores' – except based on fission, not fusion», Müller smiles.
Fallout Technologies: Fictional vs. Real
A Hybrid Reality
So, Fallout's technologies aren't entirely fantasy. Tubes still work today, nuclear batteries exist, small reactors are under development.
But there's a fundamental difference. In the game, these technologies are cheap and widespread. In reality, they're expensive and niche.
«If the transistor hadn't been invented, we'd have found a way to make tubes cheaper», Schmidt from JJ Electronic muses. «Maybe we'd have learned to make them microscopic. Or discovered some other amplification principle.»
Nuclear energy is tougher. Physical limits don't go away – radioactive materials are dangerous, reactors need shielding and control.
«A Fallout-style world is technically possible», concludes Dr. Meier of TUM. «But it would be far more hazardous and energy-hungry than ours.»
In the end, maybe it's for the better that we went down the path of silicon chips and lithium batteries. Though tube amps really do sound beautiful.
Building a Home Tube Amplifier
A Home Experiment
Before writing this piece, I decided to build a simple tube amplifier at home. I bought a Soviet 6P1P tube on eBay for €15, wound a transformer, and assembled the circuit.
The result? A toaster-sized device that draws 50 watts at idle and gets as hot as an iron. But the sound is warm, tubey. There's something mesmerizing about seeing the filaments glow, hearing the faint hum of the transformer.
Maybe the inhabitants of Fallout's alternate universe really did know a thing or two about technological aesthetics.
See you in the next report from the labs of the future.
