Radiation safety

Radiation alarm prompts order for workers to seek cover

Radiation warning alarms sounded Thursday at a former plutonium production plant in Washington state, prompting a take-cover order that sent about 350 workers seeking cover indoors during the demolition of a plant that for decades had helped make nuclear weapons.

The order was lifted less than four hours later after low levels of radiation were detected at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the site of a massive cleanup.

The Energy Department said no injuries were reported, and workers had applied an adhesive product to the contamination to prevent it from spreading from locations on sidewalks and near a vehicle access gate at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which dates to the late 1940s.