An experimental study of the boiling characteristics of water heated to saturation temperature under pulsed heating of a cylindrical metal surface with a roughness up to 5 microns was carried out. The experiments were conducted for a range of initial liquid temperatures from 30 to 110 °C, initial pressures of 0.3 MPa, water velocities of 0.4 m/s, and wall temperature rises of 200 to 1900 K/sec. The nucleation density was determined during the development of bubble boiling at different levels of power release and initial temperatures of the liquid.