Safe Luxury

How are the vaults in Fallout games meant to be self-sufficient?

I read on Wikipedia that the vaults in the Fallout series are made to sustain up to a thousand people for an indefinate amount of time, meaning that a population of humans could live in one of them for many thousands of years. Well, I haven'e got any Fallout games so how exactly is the self-sufficient thing figured out? How can a vault generate its own food?

Public Comments

1. I think they have plant growth chambers within ans they also use a lot of drugs to sustain life. Not that sure really. I have fallout and havent found how they livr
2. It's possible that they have special gardens that don't need sunlight. And maybe they have shots or something that give you the same nutrients as food. Maybe...
3. Officially, the Vaults were nuclear shelters designed to protect the American population from nuclear holocaust. However, with a population of almost 400 million by 2077, the U.S. would need nearly 400,000 Vaults the size of Vault 13, while Vault-Tec was commissioned to build only 122 such Vaults. The real reason for the existence of these Vaults was to study pre-selected segments of the population to see how they react to the stresses of isolation and how successfully they re-colonize Earth after the Vault opens. Of the 122 Vaults, only 17 were control, meaning that only 17 were made to public expectations, all others were designed to include a social experiment, sometimes with a select few of the inhabitants observing the occupants. In terms of providing safety and security for their inhabitants, most of the Vaults were complete failures. However, as noted in the Penny Arcade Comic, the Vaults were never really intended to save anyone. There was simply not enough time, money or resources to build enough shelters to house more than a fraction of the population. While the "control vaults" did function as advertised and open on schedule, most were actually intended to explore and observe how societies adapt (or, more often, fail to adapt) to various challenges and restrictions. These social experiments were performed on live and mostly unaware subjects, monitored by Vault-Tec researchers in separate facilities, and undertaken at the behest of what would become the Enclave as part of a massive feasibility study of how to best re-colonize a barren Earth or, if necessary, other planets. Most of the Vaults seen in the games were non-viable 200 or even a mere 80 years after the War. While Vault 13 might have lasted until its scheduled opening date of 2277, the unplanned failure of the Water Chip forced the Overseer's hand and set subsequent events in motion. If Vault 101 was truly intended to stay closed "forever", its failure was inevitable; the only question was how long, and what form the change or disaster would take. Many other Vaults were abandoned because of unlivable conditions, or saw the residents driven violently insane by the procedures inflicted on them. Some of these continue to pose a hazard to the unwary who wander in from outside, looking for loot or a place of safety. Each Vault was designed to hold one thousand occupants at any given time, although hot bunking was required at maximum capacity, and equipped with all facilities and supplies needed by them to survive in isolation for the designated time. The facilities and supplies included complete construction equipment, hydro-agricultural farms, a water purification system, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication systems and surface monitors, social and entertainment files (for total duration) as well as one or two G.E.C.K.s, intended to help the inhabitants repopulate the post-nuclear world after the All Clear signal is sent following the conclusion of the social experiment. Different types of power sources were utilized for the Vaults. Vault 13 relied primarily on geothermal energy, with backup power available from a General Atomics Nuclear Power generator, and could sustain one thousand inhabitants for two hundred years. Vault 8 on the other hand, relied on an unspecified type of reactor, which, while enough for Vault City to emerge, could only support a relatively small, highly advanced settlement, and in 2241 was nearing its capacity, after which further growth would be impossible. All Vault Dwellers wore blue-and-yellow jumpsuits, although the design varied between different Vaults. An average Vault Dweller living in a properly maintained Vault could expect to live at least 92.3 years[6]. It should be noted that due to scaling, the size of Vaults in games shouldn't be taken at face value - none of the Vaults which can be entered in the series have enough space or facilities to actually house 1000 people (or rather 500, as hot bunking system is in effect at maximum capacity). Realistically speaking, many of the Vaults are flawed. The powerful shockwaves caused by nuclear weapons would likely cause the entrance shaft (which has no internal support) to collapse entirely. This would block the blast door, causing the inhabitants to be entombed by the above building(s) and or rocks. This may have happened to Vault 87, which suffered a direct nuclear blast outside its door that still produced high levels of radiation 200 years after the fact. These shockwaves are mostly caused by ground-burst detonations, however, and Vault-Tec may have assumed that they only had to plan for air-bursts (usually favored for maximum dispersal and minimum blockage of the blast by terrain). It is also possible that the designers believed that the Vaults would not be primary targets in a war, and so only constructed them to protect against radiation and distant nuclear explosions. Also, some of the Vaults, such as Vault 112, have a reinforced steel entrance shaft and would probably be able to withstand even a nearby surface detonation. However, the entrance to the building above Vault 112 was nearly buried by rubble. i'm done