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Comment by ohazi | Hacker News Reader

You'll never find a source for this, but there have been rumors for years that TSMC facilities have cabinets filled with explosives and (in?)formal procedures to render themselves inoperable should the worst come to pass.

If you wanted to cause worldwide mayhem, I guess this would do it, but I wouldn't assume that TSMC could just be invaded and taken over like that.

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That wouldn't surprise me, they have deliberately done things like lay gas or oil lines at the likely beaches for landing zones so they can essentially set them on fire at a moment's notice, and have extensive fortifications all various parts of the island.

There is almost certainly at least a plan to render any critical equipment like that unusable, even if there aren't wired up explosives at the fab at all times.

Cabinets filled with illegal explosives at cutting-edge precision multi-billion factory with priceless equipment awaiting for an accident?

Only if it very safe explosives planted in strategic places by Taiwan military with consent from all parties involved with solders posted 24/7 to protect from sabotage.

Like bridges in military time.

Who said anything about illegal? The Taiwanese government knows the importance of TSMC. If the rumors are true, the explosives would be there because the government wanted it.

It isn't exactly unprecedented. Switzerland kept all its bridges and tunnels actively primed with explosives at all times since at least WW2 to the early 2000s.

>with priceless equipment awaiting for an accident?

I'm not an expert on explosives, but aren't modern explosives relatively safe? As in, they require very specific conditions to explode, so they're not going to be set off by a random fires or impacts. The blasting caps (needed to initiate the explosion) can be placed in a safe in the plant manager's office.

They are

I've heard that American soldiers in Vietnam sometimes cooked their food by lighting pieces of C4 on fire. I'm not sure if that's historically accurate but it should be possible at least; as you say you need something like a blasting cap to detonate it.

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