We perform direct numerical simulations of an externally driven two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic system over extended periods of time to simulate the dynamics of a transverse section of a solar coronal loop .
A stationary and large-scale magnetic forcing was imposed , to model the photospheric motions at the magnetic loop footpoints .
A turbulent stationary regime is reached , which corresponds to energy dissipation rates consistent with the heating requirements of coronal loops .

The temporal behavior of quantities such as the energy dissipation rate show clear indications of intermittency , which are exclusively due to the strong nonlinearity of the system .
We tentatively associate these impulsive events of magnetic energy dissipation ( from 5 \times 10 ^ { 24 } erg to 10 ^ { 26 } erg ) to the so-called nanoflares .
A statistical analysis of these events yields a power law distribution as a function of their energies with a negative slope of 1.5 , which is consistent with those obtained for flare energy distributions reported from X-ray observations . \keywords Sun : flares — MHD — turbulence