Underground nuclear astrophysics (Dubna lecture)

The very low background level is a key requirement for underground nuclear astrophysics experiments. The reference for these purposes is the world’s so far only underground accelerator laboratory for nuclear astrophysics, LUNA. LUNA is located deep underground in the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy, shielded from cosmic rays by 1400m of rock.
This talk presents the need and the advantages of an underground setting. It covers also new findings, regarding active shielding at underground settings, leading to have the possibility to perform nuclear astrophysics experiments with sufficient precision also at shallow underground.
Finally the recent nuclear astrophysics related experiments performed at the surface, at LUNA, and at different underground depths will be presented.