Stability and Transport in Magnetic Confinement Systems provides an advanced introduction to the fields of stability and transport in tokamaks. It serves as a reference for researchers with its highly-detailed theoretical background, and contains new results in the areas of analytical nonlinear theory of transport using kinetic theory and fluid closure. The use of fluid descriptions for advanced stability and transport problems provide the reader with a better understanding of this topic. In addition, the areas of nonlinear kinetic theory and fluid closure gives the researcher the basic knowledge of a highly relevant area to the present development of transport physics.

For a few seconds with large machines, scientists and engineers have now created the fusion power of the stars in the laboratory and at the same time find the rich range of complex turbulent electromagnetic waves that transport the plasma confinement systems. The turbulent transport mechanisms created in the laboratory are explained in detail in the second edition of 'Turbulent Transport in Magnetized Plasmas' by Professor Horton.The principles and properties of the major plasma confinement machines are explored with basic physics to the extent currently understood. For the observational laws that are not understood — the empirical confinement laws — offering challenges to the next generation of plasma students and researchers — are explained in detail. An example, is the confinement regime — called the 'I-mode' — currently a hot topic — is explored.Numerous important problems and puzzles for the next generation of plasma scientists are explained. There is growing demand for new simulation codes utilizing the massively parallel computers with MPI and GPU methods. When the 20 billion dollar ITER machine is tested in the 2020ies, new theories and faster/smarter computer simulations running in near real-time control systems will be used to control the burning hydrogen plasmas.

The results of five decades of experimental investigations of open-ended and closed magnetic confinement geometries are examined to see if intrinsic topology-dependent differences in their cross-field transport can be discerned. The evidence strongly supports a picture in which closed systems (stellarators, tokamaks, reversed-field pinches, etc.) are in all cases studied to date characterized by some level of plasma turbulence, leading to substantial deviations from purely classical cross-field transport. This transport is often describable as a Bohm-like scaling with plasma temperature and magnetic field intensity. By contrast, open systems have in many significant examples been able to approach closely to classically predicted cross-field transport, including cases where the transport appeared to be more than five orders of magnitude slower than the Bohm-diffusion rate. To explain these differences the following tentative hypothesis is put forward: The differences arise from two sources: (1) differences in the instability driving terms arising from free-energy sources, such as current flow along the field lines, etc. and, (2) differences in the nature of the boundary conditions for the various unstable waves that may be stimulated by these free energy sources within the plasma. By analogy with a laser, closed systems, with their flux tubes returning on themselves, resemble a ring resonator, while open systems either have or can be arranged to have absorptive (or low reflectivity) end boundary conditions for unstable waves. It is suggested that if the hypothesis is a valid one it further enhances the desirability of devoting more effort to the investigation of open-ended systems than is now being allotted.

Plasma Science and Engineering transforms fundamental scientific research into powerful societal applications, from materials processing and healthcare to forecasting space weather. Plasma Science: Enabling Technology, Sustainability, Security and Exploration discusses the importance of plasma research, identifies important grand challenges for the next decade, and makes recommendations on funding and workforce. This publication will help federal agencies, policymakers, and academic leadership understand the importance of plasma research and make informed decisions about plasma science funding, workforce, and research directions.

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