We review progress in studying two central problems in Nuclear Astrophysics:The \be7pg reaction is one of the major source of uncertainties in estimatingthe \b8 solar neutrino flux and is critical for the Solar Neutrino Problem. Wediscuss a newly emerging method to extract this cross section from the Coulombdissociation of the radioactive beam of \b8. The Coulomb dissociation appearsto provide a viable alternative method for measuring the \be7pg reaction rate.Several attempts to constrain the p-wave S-factor of the \c12ag reaction atHelium burning temperatures (200 MK) using the beta-delayed alpha-particleemission of \n16 have been made, and it is claimed that this S-factor is known,as quoted by the TRIUMF collaboration. In contrast reanalyses (by G.M. hale) ofall thus far available data (including the \n16 data) does not rule out a smallS-factor solution. Furthermore, we improved our previous Yale-UConn study ofthe beta-delayed alpha-particle emission of \n16. Our newly measured spectrumof the beta-delayed alpha-particle emission of \n16 is not consistent with theTRIUMF('94) data, but is consistent with the Seattle('95) data, as well as theearlier (unaltered !) data of Mainz('71). The implication of this discrepanciesfor the extracted astrophysical p-wave s-factor is briefly discussed.
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