Abstract: The past two decades has seen the peak of hydropower construction in China. As the major approach of excavation and construction of water conservancy projects, blasting technology has achieved considerable development after the construction of many major hydropower projects. According to literature and documents in association with practical experiences and research results of large-scale projects in China, we made a review on blasting technologies in various hydropower engineering fields including the precise blasting control for foundation excavation of super-high arch dam, the key technology of excavation blasting control for hydraulic underground cavern, the key technology of blasting control for mining hydraulic graded material, and the intelligent blasting technology for hydropower engineering. With some engineering cases as examples, we emphasized the latest research progresses in the above-mentioned technical fields covering precise blasting and intelligent blasting for hydropower projects, and blasting and demolition of special hydraulic structures. The researches offer reference for the excavation and blasting control of similar projects in the fields of civil engineering, mining engineering, traffic engineering, and nuclear power engineering.

Key words: hydropower engineering, blasting technology, arch shoulder groove, underground cavern, grade ingredients, intelligent control