Publications

Who are the BENE Group?

The BENE group consists of individuals from a range of backgrounds. It is not aligned to any political party, nor is it sponsored or funded by any organisation. We are a group of like-minded individuals coming together to pool our expertise with a view to taking part in the Irish energy debate and, in particular, to give balance to any nuclear discussion. Our ultimate goal is to help Ireland have a better environment by adopting nuclear energy.

Members

Frank Turvey is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Nuclear Engineers. Frank's involvement with Irish nuclear goes back to the original proposal on Carnsore Point.

David Sowby studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and at the University of Toronto . After some years in clinical medicine he took up a career in radiation protection, first in Canada and then as Scientific Secretary of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

Tom O'Flaherty, a Chartered Engineer, is the former Chief Executive of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (formerly the Institution of Electrical Engineers). In his earlier career he worked on wind energy, energy conservation, heat pumps, and oil and gas exploration. While with An Foras Taluntais (now Teagasc) in the 1980s he had responsibility for Ireland's first EU-funded Demonstration Project on wind energy.

John Stafford is treasurer of BENE. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has had extensive business experience nationally and internationally.

Denis Duff is a mechanical engineer currently working in the power generation sector. He has wide experience of different electrical generation systems. Denis was the lead engineer of an evaluation project on wind energy converters. He also commissioned a solid fuel station and is a manager at a combined cycle gas turbine station.

Ian McAulay has a background in health physics and has been extensively involved in measurements of radioactivity in the environment and in radiation protection. He was heavily involved in the nuclear debate thirty years ago and at that time was one of the Irish scientists trying to correct imbalances in the media coverage.

Philip Walton received his degrees in physics from Trinity College Dublin. He then worked in the Department of Clinical Physics and Bioengineering (WRHB, Glasgow , Scotland ). In 1968 he joined the Medical College of Virginia, USA, where he was Chairman of the Radiation Physics Division. In 1978 he became Professor of Applied Physics at NUI, Galway . He retired in 2005 and is now Emeritus Professor. He served for seven years on the Board of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland. He has served as Radiological Protection Officer both at MCV and NUI, Galway .

Jim Morrissey is a former research technician with experience in both nuclear and hydrogen laboratories. He worked in high temperature and high pressure materials testing where he shares a patent on Hydrogen storage systems. He has extensive experience in data acquisition and measurement techniques. His final five years in research was in a nuclear medical project. He is a graduate of the MII and has experience of management in Ireland's manufacturing sector.