A theory of drift wave turbulence is presented based on a low‐density gas of drift wave solitons. The Gibb’s ensemble for the ideal gas is used to calculate the dynamical scattering form factorS(k,&ohgr;). In contrast to renormalized turbulence theory, the spectrum has a broad frequency component with &Dgr;&ohgr; proportional to the fluctuation level &dgr;ne/n0at fixedkand peaks at a frequency &ohgr;≳kyvde.