Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by theandrewbailey on Friday January 21, 2022 @02:08PM (#30028422)

Half of Ohio is flat, and gets lots of storms that blow through the plains and prairies from the west, so not exactly low probability of tornadoes.

Source: I grew up in central Ohio. Public schools made it a point to practice tornado drills. In addition, there was an old Cold War-era air raid siren a block from the house I grew up in that had been repurposed and tested for tornado warnings. One of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rRSY0dRIU

Edit: read about Xenia, Ohio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia,_Ohio

> Xenia has a history of severe storm activity. According to local legend, the Shawnee referred to the area as "the place of the devil wind" or "the land of the crazy winds" (depending upon the translation).

> On April 3, 1974, a tornado rated F5 on the Fujita scale cut a path directly through the middle of Xenia during the 1974 Super Outbreak

> Xenia was struck by an F2 tornado on April 25, 1989, and again by an F4 tornado on September 20, 2000.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by eeeeeeehio on Friday January 21, 2022 @04:33PM (#30030287)

Even large, damaging tornadoes have quite localized impacts (max of maybe a mile in path width) -- and you don't generally do much more than stay up to building code in order to prepare for one. In contrast, earthquakes devastate entire areas and require substantial changes to building construction in order to protect against them.

The probability of a large, damaging tornado at a particular spot in Ohio is quite small compared with the risk of damaging earthquakes in other locations. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-probability-earthquake-will-o...

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by grayfaced on Friday January 21, 2022 @06:27PM (#30031299)

Tornado protection is mostly about avoiding damage in the periphery of a tornado. A building of that size can't realistically be protected from a direct hit of a major tornado. Proper engineering can protect a building from basically all earthquakes. Whether the contents inside are secured properly is a different matter and that's where most damage occurs.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by CamperBob2 on Friday January 21, 2022 @06:34PM (#30031366)

you don't generally do much more than stay up to building code in order to prepare for one.

Interesting. I'm unfamiliar with building code provisions that are designed to mitigate the effects of tornadoes, which are arguably the most destructive force on Earth apart from an erupting volcano or a nuclear attack, on a semiconductor fab, which is arguably among the most sensitive and easily-disrupted facilities ever built. Any good sources for further reading?

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