False alarm prompts Hanford workers to take cover

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — About 1,000 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation briefly took cover after a chlorine alarm sounded at a water treatment plant.

The Wednesday afternoon alarm was determined to be false.

Department of Energy spokesman Geoff Tyree told the Tri-City Herald that no chlorine leak was detected.

Hanford was created by the Manhattan Project during World War II in the race to build an atomic bomb.

The sprawling complex near Washington's Tri-Cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco is involved in a multi-decade cleanup program that already has cost more than $40 billion.