References: "Nuclear Physics - The Core of Matter, The Fuel of Stars", Committee on Nuclear Physics, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1999

"The nucleus is a powerful laboratory for probing many of the fundamental symmetries of nature, because it can magnify subtle effects that may hide beyond the direct reach of the world's most energetic accelerators." (p. 2)

'two major and farsighted investments' in the United States,
CEBAF - a microscope for probing the structure of nuclei to bridge the description between protons and neutrons, on the one hand, and quarks and gluons on the other.
RHIC - study the properties of matter at very high densities, equivalent to the densities in neutron stars and different epochs of the Big Bang.

Nuclear Processes in the Cosmos
1) neutrinos from the sun, from supernovae, and from cosmic rays
2) exotic nuclei - those with a large over abundance of neutrons play an essential role in the evolution of the galaxy and of life. They are the progenitors of half of the heavy elements and are believed to  be created during supernovae explosions.
3) beams of unstable light nuclei - Stellar reactions which produce the chemical elements often involve short lived projectiles or targets. We can reproduce these conditions that occur in the stars with radioactive isoptope accelerators. Knowledge of the reaction rates of unstable projectiles enable our models of stellar physics to be tested.