While recent measurements have substantially improved our understanding of the ¹⁸F(p,\alpha )¹⁵O reaction that is important in novae, the production of ¹⁸F is still uncertain by more than 2 orders of magnitude, due in large part to the contribution of a resonance located at E_cm=330 keV. We developed a new technique to study resonant (p,\alpha ) reactions and employed it to measure properties of the E_cm=183 keV resonance in ¹⁷O(p,\alpha )¹⁴N which had been previously reported to decrease ¹⁸F production in ONeMg novae by as much as a factor of 10. The previous results were confirmed using the new technique and we now propose to use this technique to study the ¹⁸F(p,\alpha )¹⁵O reaction.

PACS numbers: 26.50.–k, 25.70.Ef, 26.20.Cd, 27.20.+n