Worker fatally electrocuted at TSMC's under-construction Hsinchu fab

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) One of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) sites in Hsinchu County has been ordered to suspend power distribution work and propose an improvement plan after a worker was electrocuted to death last week.

TSMC said Tuesday that the accident occurred on the afternoon of Oct. 18 at the unfinished Fab 20 site in the Baoshan area of Hsinchu Science Park.

A contract worker was electrocuted while working on an office power distribution project at the site, the chip maker said.

The worker was sent to hospital by an ambulance stationed at the factory, but was pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts failed, TSMC said, adding that the company contacted the worker's family shortly after the accident occurred.

The Hsinchu Science Park Bureau, which manages high-tech sites including TSMC's Fab 20, said Tuesday that it notified the Ministry of Labor and dispatched personnel to inspect the worksite on the day the accident happened.

The bureau then ordered TSMC to suspend work in the indoor power distribution area and propose a safety improvement plan. Work can only resume, the bureau said, once it has conducted inspections after receiving TSMC's new safety plan.

TSMC said that it will fully cooperate with the authorities' investigation, but did not indicate when the work improvement plan would be submitted.

TSMC, Taiwan's most valuable company by market capitalization, operates multiple manufacturing facilities across Taiwan that produce many of the world's most advanced microchips.

The Fab 20 site in Hsinchu Science Park is expected to use 2-nanometer (nm) technology when production begins in 2025. Another 2nm production facility is currently under construction in Kaohsiung.