I will show why radioactive ion beams are important to study nuclear reactions relevant for astrophysics, especially for X-ray bursts. A short insight will be given to techniques used at radioactive ion beam facilities. A new program to investigate Xray bursts at RIKEN, Japan will be introduced and some of the related developments will be discussed.

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Zoltán Elekes
MTA Atomki
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Institute for Nuclear Research