Jan. 28, 2005

Parking garage lightning protection

David Thompson's speculation as to why there was no lightning protection on the parking garage is incorrect. There is no lightning protection on the west parking garage because it is not required by NFPA 780, the national code that governs lightning protection systems. The National Fire Protection Association, the same people responsible for the National Electric Codes and the National Fire Protection Codes, have specific criteria in NFPA 780 that help the design engineers determine when lightning protection systems are required. This code was developed based on science and experience. Structures below a certain height do not need lightning protection systems. The Laboratory engineering standards reference design engineers to NFPA 780 to determine the need for lightning protection. The Department of Energy standards do not have dollar limitations on lightning protection, but they do have on fire protection systems.

There is no 100 percent foolproof way to protect anything or anyone from lightning. Lightning is a very powerful and unpredictable force. People that stand around in the open or under the tallest tree during a thunderstorm, whether on a golf course or a baseball field, get killed by lightning strikes all the time. Thunderstorms don't come up in 30 seconds and surprise you; they take some time to develop, and you can usually see or hear them coming. If there is a thunderstorm, don't park on the top level of a garage, don't get out of the car and don't walk around outside. I seriously doubt a Laboratory employee would get in trouble for being a little late to work because he or she decided not to walk around in a thunderstorm.

When the park-and-ride shelter is re-located as part of the Security Perimeter Project, it will be constructed in accordance with appropriate codes and standards, including NFPA 780. Because this shelter will be more or less by itself, away from any taller structures, and it will likely have to occasionally serve as a shelter during thunderstorms for bus commuters, it will have an NFPA 780 code-compliant lightning protection system installed and it will be constructed of appropriate nonconductive materials. But it is important to remember that it will not be 100 percent foolproof.

--Mark Harris