Magnetic Flux Pumps (also known as Electromagnetic Pumps) have no moving parts. These pumps have very limited uses since very few liquids which people normally pump are good conductors of electricity, a requirement for this pump to work.

There are a wide range of capacities and models, using different principles of electromagnetism. When they can be used, Magnetic Flux Pumps offer several advantages:

First, there are no seals. This reduces the chance of spills because seals can be a major source of leaks. It also reduces maintenance, increases reliability, and makes it easier to move high-temperature liquid metals.

Second, because there are no moving parts (no journals, no bearings, no vanes, etc.), vibration- and friction-induced wear is reduced, downtime is reduced, and reliability is increased.

(This is a still representation and possibly also a low-resolution image of a pump which is fully animated in the CD-ROM version of this glossary.)

The pump shown below works like a liquid electric motor. The liquid between the copper conductor bars acts as a conductor.

Quoting Nuclear Reactor Engineering (by Glasstone and Sesonske; see bibliography for full reference):

"If a conductor in a magnetic field carries a current flowing at right angles to the direction of the field, a force is exerted on the conductor in a direction perpendicular to both the field and the current." (Page 406.)

Immediately upon entering service in a nuclear reactor, these pumps start to become radioactively contaminated (for example, with Sodium-24), thus becoming at the same time, both extremely dangerous, and yet impossible to discard safely after use.