Thunder Mountain Power Plant

The Thunder Mountain power plant is a location in the Mire region of Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Thunder Mountain was one of three nuclear power plants in Appalachia, providing energy to the entire region. Automated through the use of Poseidon Power Management System from Poseidon Energy, it could be maintained and monitored with a minimum of human oversight and would automatically shut down the plant in the event of a critical failure.

This allowed the plant to survive the Great War without experiencing a critical meltdown and was ripe for the picking when the Free States emerged from their bunkers. A unit under one Deke took the power plant and secured it for use as a stronghold, although soon they were attacked by a military unit - Taggerdy's Thunder. After demonstrating their ability in a shock and awe attack let Deke's men shaken, though without any casualties, Taggerdy's men opened negotiations: In return for vacating the power plant, they would not be harmed and permitted to leave with their weapons and equipment. Together with a 12 hour deadline, the decision was obvious: Although some Free Staters wanted to stand their ground and fight, Deke's calm assessment of the situation prevailed and they vacated the power plant, marching out with the Thunder's guns pointed at them.

The Thunder Mountain power plant served as a base for the Thunder and then the Brotherhood of Steel. It was their main source of energy in Appalachia, powering Fort Defiance, Camp Venture, and other strongpoints. The soldiers restored and maintained the power plant. When the deteriorating strategic situation forced Taggerdy to tighten the belt and abandon non-essential facilities like Camp Venture, Thunder Mountain remained online to power the anti-aircraft artillery emplacements in the Bog. It was kept safe by a sonic device at the Fort, that was luring nearby scorchbeasts into kill zones. After the failed Operation Touchdown, the numbers of scorchbeasts grew to the point where the device failed to attract all of them. The fall of Fort Defiance and Thunder Mountain was a matter of time.

In fact, it was the last location of the Brotherhood to fall, outlasting Fort Defiance by a full day. On August 18th, 2095, the power plant received a transmission from Fort Defiance warning them of the imminent attack from the Scorched. The Brotherhood soldiers prepared as well as they could, sending scouts to confirm the warning. Whatever preparation they managed to do was in vain. The Scorched attacked in large numbers. The Brotherhood managed to hold to the next day. They had to abandon the facility roof, after the AAAs started to run low on ammunition. In the end, only Squire Rosen and Squire Gilden survived long enough to note the Brotherhood's bravery in a terminal, perishing soon after as the walls couldn't hold the scorched back any longer. Once they were killed on August 19, 2095, the Thunder Mountain power plant fell silent and remained so until the emergence of Vault dwellers from Vault 76.

Layout
Thunder Mountain power plant is the smallest power plant in Fallout 76, though still a sizable location. It is divided into three main parts: The Thunder Mt. power plant yard to the southeast, encompassing the parking lot and the transformer enclosure next to the lake, the power plant proper, and the cooling towers. There are two cooling towers next to each other and easy access to the turbine hall for the generator section.

The yard is a claimable workshop and contains tents used by the Brotherhood as a staging area, two crafting stations for cooking and the workshop, as well as a power armor spawn. It exits into the state route and a small inner road leading under the skybridge towards the cooling towers in the back. The two cooling towers are connected by a skybridge and contain facilities for venting excess heat from the nuclear reactor, together with control stations and locker rooms. Each also contains entrances to the two wings of the power plant.

The western wing contains the nuclear reactor that powers the facility. The ground floor contains the offices, lobby, and security checkpoint on the ground floor, with the master control room accessible up the stairwells. From the master control room, players can enter the reactor hall through a secure airlock that has to be operated using the adjacent terminal. The airlock also includes a decontamination arch, useful for getting rid of excess radiation that fills the reactor chamber. A quick way into the reactor section is through the main entrance, into the restrooms, and through the hole in the wall into the reactor chamber.
 * Interior

The mechanical bay, loading dock, and fuel storage are on the southeastern end of the ground floor and contain a chemistry station and a power armor station with a second power armor spawn. The fuel storage is highly irradiated.

Exit to the western cooling tower is on the top floor. The eastern wing is the turbine hall and is much smaller than the main building, though no less confusing due to the winding catwalks. The corridor on the top floor exits to the cooling tower.

Notable loot

 * Six potential magazines:
 * On or below the large conference table with the office desk fan on it, upstairs and northeast of the entrance lobby, with stairs outside the room.
 * On or below the small computer bank, left side of the filing cabinets along the southwest wall of a connecting corridor to the main plant, right of the window, with the double door marked "turbine hall" at the northeast end.
 * On the shelf of the green metal wall cabinet, south corner adjacent to the metal door and wall clock, in the small connecting room (with three exits) between the gantry stairwell and door marked "pipe interchange, cooling tower #1," and the smaller fuel storage chamber with gantries and the flooded floor.
 * On the white table with the orange tool box, along the northwest wall in the corridor connecting the turbine hall to cooling tower #2 (interior).
 * On the second-to-bottom shelf of the green metal work shelf, pointed at the southwest wall (by the perimeter wall), along the gantry with two sets of large wall extractor fans on either side, in the reactor room.
 * In the wastebasket, right of the small black computer bank, south upper corner of the tiered-floor master control chamber.
 * Five potential Vault-Tec bobbleheads:
 * On the right end, atop the black mainframe computer on the wall marked "turbine hall," at corner of the corridor from cooling tower #2 (interior).
 * On an explosives box, under the toxic water, in the flooded base of the giant fuel storage room (interior).
 * In the toxic water, under the middle of five submerged trolley carts carrying yellow radiation barrels, in the flooded bottom of the smaller fuel storage room with the gantry ramp (below the large open red warehouse doors and "reactor" sign).
 * In the small section of rusting hatch pipe, right in the northwestern corner of the reactor room.
 * On the corner (light blue) mainframe computer bank, at the foot of the reactor, south side of the reactor room.
 * Power armor chassis with T-series armor pieces - Enter the door labeled "Loading Dock" on the southeast side of the main building, go to the left. The power armor is at one of the two power armor stations. Another single piece of power armor can spawn on a table in one of the tents in the south part of the power plant yard.

Appearances
Thunder Mountain power plant appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes
The Thunder Mountain power plant is based on the Mount Storm Power Station, near the real-world town of Bismarck, Grant County, West Virginia. As in the game, it has a man-made lake adjacent to it, and sits on land that abuts the Dolly Sods Wilderness.