$\alpha$-induced cross section of $^{120}$Te for the astrophysical p process*

There are about 35 nuclei found in nature, which are not susceptible to neutron capture and are explained by the p-process. The modeling for this process requires thousands of nuclear reactions involving both stable and unstable nuclei including ($\alpha, \alpha$), ($\alpha, p$) and ($\alpha, \gamma$) reactions. In a recent experiment, the cross section of the reaction $^{120}$Te($\alpha,p$)$^{123}$I was measured in the energy range of astrophysical interest for the p-process. The $\alpha$ beam from the Notre Dame FN Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator bombarded highly enriched self-supporting $^{120}$Te targets and the $\gamma$-rays from the activated $^{123}$I was counted with a pair of Ge clover detectors in close geometry. Preliminary results will be presented.