  Nuclear reaction cross sections are usually very small in typical
astrophysical environments. It has been one of the major challenges of
experimental nuclear astrophysics to assess the magnitude of these cross
sections in the laboratory. For a successful experiment high luminosity beams
are needed. Increasing the target width, one also increases the reaction
yields. But, this is of limited use due to multiple scattering in the target.
Storage rings are a very good way to overcome these difficulties. In principle,
they can be tuned to large luminosities, and have the advantage of crossing the
interaction region many times per second (typically one million/s),
compensating low density internal gas targets, or low reaction rates in
beam-beam collisions. Storage rings are also ideal tools for precise
measurements of masses and beta-decay lifetimes of nuclei of relevance for
astrophysics.
