First evidence for direct two-proton radioactivity has been observed in the decay of the first excited state of17Ne.The decay is in competition with the &ggr;-decay back to the ground state of17Neand from the branching ratio the lifetime for the two-proton decay is estimated to be 0.9 ps. The proton-proton angular distribution is statistically not significant to observe any correlations. The first excited state was populated with relativistic Coulomb excitation of the exotic beam of17Ne.This method can also be used to study the inverse reaction (2p, &ggr;). Although the present reaction15O(2p,&ggr;)17Neis not important for astrophysical purposes two-proton capture reactions on heavier proton rich nuclei can have a large impact on the path of the rp-process. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.