TSMC confirms 'unexploded ordnance' removed from wafer fab construction site

TSMC has confirmed that workers were evacuated from one of its construction sites in Taiwan after discovery of an unexploded bomb.

"Regarding the suspected unexploded ordnance discovered during excavation at TSMC's Kaohsiung site in the morning of Nov. 11, the relevant authorities have examined it and determined there are no safety concerns. The object has been removed, and construction at the site is ongoing and remains on schedule," TSMC told The Register.

The 227kg object was reportedly found by a contractor at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park in Kaohsiung – a 12-inch wafer plant the chipmaker is currently building.

A unit of the Taiwanese army was dispatched, construction workers sent to safety, and the corroded bomb removed. It is reportedly being stored in a warehouse.

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The prospect of TSMC's Taiwanese facilities being damaged or taken over is frequently the subject of speculation by strategic geopolitics wonks.

This incident probably didn’t make it into their simulations or wargames, because the presence of the bomb is almost certainly related to the Japanese military's use of the site during World War II. The land also formerly served as a naptha cracking plant – a petrochemical process that breaks down complex hydrocarbons into simpler and more valuable chemicals such as ethylene and propylene.

Identifying the bomb was reportedly made impossible by the illegibility of its serial number.

Other relics from WWII, including about 450kg of suspected unexploded ordnance remains, were found at the construction site in August.

That discovery came just weeks after TSMC broke ground at the facility. ®