When I first wrote about it, I did mention “samples” - biological, temperature-sensitive etc etc.
This is actually a big deal. Regarding volumes and their spread within the container, you’ll probably sense the true purpose - keeping the vials and sample holders at a nice, chilly place before you introduce them to an enviroment designed for keeping specific materials. And that is, the way I see it, freezer of a kind.
The other convenient thing would be to introduce “setting up camp” as a viable task in the course of everyone’s Cataclysm enjoyment. There was this thing, and still is, that came up a couple of years ago and it’s called the “Strawberry Tree”. Following up on the campaign that introduced free wireless internet in some parks, facilities, even areas they’ve developed a branched structure (Google it up!) that yields energy off solar cells! It was developed by some students from my country that won a prize with the invention, as a practical solution for charging cell phones and other mobile devices when you’ve been away from your home and the devices that usually serve the purpose. Those guys still enjoy popularity due to their mindwork, and have even started a company that deploys clean energy solutions.
For the player’s conveniency, other than setting up shelter somewhere in the wild to repair, craft and fill up the supply stack, one could create a futuristic device that once (A)ctivated charges up everything in its vicinity - in a manner that Strawberry Tree does, or the Solar powered car ingame does to its batteries. The player then could hunt, explore, salvage and craft while all his battery-powered devices are being recharged at once; a spot for a portable fridge is there, two squares from the device. 
I see that some bits and bytes have been introduced to help manage the events that happen away from the current map square the player’s at, and this would be thoroughly supportive of the efforts to install some way of energy supply system back into the world of Cataclysm.
