An explosively pumped flow compression generator (EPFCG) is a device used to generate a high-power electromagnetic pulse by the compression of magnetic flux using high explosive. An EPFCG generates only a single pulse since the device is physically destroyed during operation. An EPFCG package that could be easily carried by one person can produce pulses in the millions of amps and dozens of terawatts. They require a starting current pulse to operate, normally supplied by capacitors.
Explosively pumped flow compression generators are used to create ultra-high magnetic fields in physics and material science research and extremely intense pulses of electric current for pulsed energy applications. They are being researched as energy sources for electronic warfare devices known as transient electromagnetic devices that generate an electromagnetic pulse without the costs and side effects of a nuclear weapon. The first work on these generators was carried out by the VNIIEF center for nuclear research in Sarov in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s followed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States.
In the early 1950s, the need for very short and powerful electrical impulses became apparent to Soviet scientists conducting nuclear fusion research. The Marx generator, which stores energy in capacitors, was the only device capable at the time of producing such high energy pulses. The prohibitive cost of the capacitors needed to obtain the desired power led to the search for a more economical device. The first magneto-explosive generators, which followed the ideas of Andrei Sakharov, were designed to fill this role.