Development of a guidance document for lightning protection of DOE facilities

The authors are developing a guidance document for the lightning protection of US Department of Energy (DOE) facilities to satisfy the requirements of the department's order DOE 5480.28, Natural Phenomena Hazards (NPH) Mitigation Performance Goals for Structures, Systems and Components (SSCs). This order specifies a systematic process of well defined and integrated design and evaluation criteria for the protection of SSCs. The document introduces the idea of Lightning Hazard Management because there is no single document that presents a unified approach to lightning protection. Earlier versions of the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Code, Lightning Protection, NFPA-78, only addressed the protection of structures. This is also true of the International Lightning Protection Standard, IEC-1024 and the Underwriters Laboratories recently issued Standard for Safety, Lightning Protection Components, UL 96