Turbulence and atomic physics in magnetically confined plasmas

An overview of issues related to the interplay between atomic process and turbulence in the peripheral regions of magnetically confined fusion devices is presented. Both atomic processes and turbulence play key roles for fusion, but have most of the time been treated separately. The effects of fluctuations on the time averaged ionization balance, on the transport of neutral particles (atoms and molecules) are discussed, using stochastic models to generate fluctuations with statistically relevant properties. Then applications to optical diagnostics of turbulence, namely gas puff imaging and beam emission spectroscopy are discussed.