  Realistic nuclear level densities (NLDs) obtained within the spectral
distribution method (SDM) are employed to study nuclear processes of
astrophysical interest. The merit of SDM lies in the fact that the NLDs
corresponding to many body shell model Hamiltonian consisting of residual
interaction can be obtained for the full configurational space without recourse
to the exact diagnolization of huge matrices. We calculate NLDs and s-wave
neutron resonance spacings which agree reasonably well with the available
experimental data. By employing these NLDs, we compute reaction cross-sections
and astrophysical reaction rates for radiative neutron capture in few Fe-group
nuclei, and compare them with experimental data as well as with those obtained
with NLDs from phenomenological and microscopic mean-field models. The results
obtained for the NLDs from SDM are able to explain the experimental data quite
well. These results are of particular importance since the configuration mixing
through the residual interaction naturally accounts for the collective
excitations. In the mean-field models, the collective effects are included
through the vibrational and rotational enhancement factors and their NLDs are
further normalized at low energies with neutron resonance data.
