Critical heat flux (CHF) at low flow condition can become important in an MTR-type research reactor under a number of accident conditions. Regardless of the initial stages of these accidents, a condition which is basically the decay heat removal by natural convention boiling can develop. Under such conditions, burnout may occur even at a very low heat flux. In view of this, the CHF at low-flow-rate and low-pressure conditions has been studied for water flowing in thin rectangular channels. Experiments were carried out with two types of rectangular test sections, namely, the one heated from one wide side and the other heated from two opposite sides. In order to observe the effects of gravity, CHF was measured both in upflow and downflow. The CHF at complete bottom blockage was also studied. The results indicate that burnout can occur at a much lower heat flux than pool-boiling CHF or than predicted by the conventional correlations. There was observed a minimum CHF at complete bottom blockage and at very low downflow. The low CHF at very low downflow appears to be due to the stagnation of the bubble in the heated section. This fact indicates that special care should be taken in analyzing the boiling phenomenon which occurs when the coolant flow is very low in a low pressure system.