The rp-process has been suggested as the dominant
nucleosynthesis process in explosive hydrogen burning at high
temperature and density conditions. The process is characterized by a
sequence of fast proton capture reactions and subsequent
β-decays. The reaction path of the rp-process runs along the
drip line up to Z≈50. Most of the charged-particle reaction
rates for the reaction path are presently based on statistical
Hauser-Feshbach calculations. While these rates are supposed to be reliable
within a factor of two for conditions of high density in the compound
nuclei, discrepancies may occur for nuclei near closed shells or near
the proton drip line where the Q-values of proton capture processes
are typically very small. It has been argued that the thermonuclear
runaway is less sensitive to the reaction rates because of the rapid
time-scale of the event. However, since these processes may operate
at the same time-scale as fast mixing and convection processes, a change
in reaction rates indeed may have a significant impact. In this paper we
present two examples, the break-out from the hot CNO cycles, and the
thermonuclear runaway in X-ray bursts itself, where changes in
reaction rates have a direct impact on time-scale, energy generation
and nucleosynthesis predictions for the explosive event