Pulsed power packs a punch

Utilities supply electric power routinely in a continuous flow, while in certain cases power must be delivered in short, huge bursts, taking into account applications such as thermonuclear-fusion research, high-energy particle accelerators, lasers, and electromagnetic launchers. For the delivery of this 'pulsed power', it is necessary to collect energy at low power, store it, and release it almost instantaneously. During the last decade, pulsed-power technology has become a recognized engineering discipline. Pulsed-power systems can now deliver gigajoules of energy, megamperes of current, or terawatts of power, while pulse widths range from microseconds to several seconds. Attention is given to capacitors as one of the oldest storage devices for electric energy, inductors, the linking of capacitors and inductors, pulse creation, the use of explosives to generate pulsed power, limitations regarding the effectiveness of batteries, low-cost energy storage provided by flywheels, dc machines, ac machines, and new applications for pulsed power.