1 TH / P 9 - 27 The Interaction Between Transport and Reconnection Processes

The interaction between transport and reconnection processes in magnetically confined plasmas is discussed. There are two complementary processes that we describe. In the first, we consider magnetic islands in a slab geometry to explore the impact of the magnetic island on ion temperature gradient stability. A local theory demonstrates a strong stabilising influence as a consequence of the suppression of gradients within the island. However, a non-local theory predicts that the presence of the magnetic island permits instabilities with a new mode structure that can be unstable. The second process addresses the impact of transport processes on the rate of reconnection. Specifically, we calculate the plasma density and flow profiles in the vicinity of the island in the situation when free streaming along magnetic field lines dominates over diffusion processes. This approximation is valid everywhere except in a narrow layer near the island separatrix, where cross-field diffusion competes with parallel free streaming. A solution in this layer is presented and matched to the solution in the external region through an intermediate collisional matching region.