Circuit breaker and circuit breaker operating method

The invention is intended to provide a circuit breaker or a circuit breaker operating method enabling a current interruption action to be performed efficiently. A circuit breaker is characterized in that includes a fixed contact and a movable contact that comes in and goes out of contact with the fixed contact; a main circuit conductor that is electrically connected to the fixed contact and the movable contact; an operating mechanism including a mover configured by concatenating permanent magnets or magnetic materials alternately having opposite N and S magnetic polarities along the direction of motion axis of the movable contact and magnetic poles disposed to face the N and S magnetic polarities of the mover and wound with windings; a current detector that detects a current flowing through the main circuit conductor; and a control device that varies the amount of a current to be supplied to the windings of the magnetic poles, depending on a current value detected by the current detector.