Fusion Cores in the Corvega assembly plant?

I started a new game completed a couple of quests and collected four fusion cores and stashed them away for later.

I then started the mission to clear the Corvega assembly plant I cleared the outside of the plant with a sniper rifle filled my inventory with loot and ran back to drop it off.

Then I picked up a couple of fusion cores and got into my power armor to go finish the mission, shortly after this I realized I had three more fusion cores in my inventory than I should have.

I thought I had accidentally picked up all four of my spare fusion cores, so I ran back to put the spares back to find that all four were still in the stash.

My question is are there four fusion cores at the Corvega assembly plant that the wiki doesn't know about or did i accidentally find a way to duplicate fusion cores?

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2 Answers

Random drops are random.

It sounds like maybe you looked at a list like this or this.

These are just lists of the items that are fixed, and will appear in the same location every time. Things that are out on tables will always be there, for instance. Things that are in containers, however, are randomly generated.

To see this, save before entering a building. Enter the building, open a container, note the contents. Then, load your save, go back in, and open the same container. It should have different contents, most of the time.

So, you probably found some randomly generated fusion cores. They are sometimes in ammo boxes, in groups of four.

I can verify Timmy Jim's observation in the comments. Furthermore, according to the wikia,

In addition to fixed locations below, fusion cores may also spawn in groups of four in certain ammo boxes across the Commonwealth.

This supports our observations. You most likely found some and didn't notice when you picked them up (especially if you typically hit "Take All").

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