[en] In order to improve the performance of regulation and load following control of boiling water reactor plant, optimal control theory is applied and new types of control method are developed. Case-α controller is first formulated on the basis of the optimal linear regulator theory applied to the linealized model of the system; it is then modified by adding a integration-type action in a feed back loop and by the use of variable gain and reference for adapting to the power level requested. Case-ß controller consists of a hierarchical control scheme which has classical P.I. type sub-loop controllers at the first level and a linear optimal regulator at the second level. The controller is designed on the basis of the optimal regulator theory applied to the multivariate autoregressive system model which is obtained from the identification experiments, where the system model is determined with the conventional sub-loop controllers included. The results of the simulation experiments show these control methods proposed have performed fairly well and will be useful for the improvement of the performance of nuclear power plant control. In addition, it is suggested that these control methods will be also attractive for the control of other production plants because these were developed in the attempt to solve the problems deviated from so called 'The gap between the optimal contro theory and actual systems.' (author)