TRANSPORT PROCESSES IN MAGNETICALLY CONFINED PLASMAS

Intensified studies of plasma transport in toroidal plasmas over the past three to five years have progressed through increased understanding in some areas and changed perceptions about the most important issues in other areas. Recent developments are reviewed for six selected topics: edge fluctuations and transport; L-H mode transition; core fluctuations; modem plasma turbulence theory; transient transport; and global scaling. Some of the developments that are highlighted include: the role of a strongly sheared poloidal flow in edge plasma turbulence, transport and the L-H transition; change of focus from k(perpendicular to)rho(s) approximately 1 to k(perpendicular-to)rho(s) much less than 1 fluctuations in tokamak plasmas; modem direct-interaction-approximation plasma turbulence and hybrid fluid/kinetic theoretical models; and transient transport experiments that are raising fundamental questions about our conceptions of local transport processes in tokamaks.