It's at this point I must refer to the Telzey Amberdon books. They're hard sci fi, pretty much, and in this setting there's quite a few psionic machines in use in society. One thing Telzey discovers very early in her adventures (since she's a newly erupted* psi) is the psionic machines in use to screen new planetary arrivals for biological contaminants are much, much bigger than they need to be to accomplish that task--and they're doing much bigger other things, like mind reading (and in Telzey's case, implanting a psionic compulsion in) unsuspecting travelers.

So, perhaps, in the grand Fallout tradition of Evil Human Experimentation Conspiracies, Nuka-Cola is doing something in the Commonwealth other than dispensing soda. Maybe Vault-Tec had a controlling interest in their New England bottling affiliate.

*'Erupted' isn't a Telzey book term. IIRC it's from Cthulhutech. Just woke up, I can't think of a more generalized one right this moment.
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Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her