Method for regulating operating parameters of a nuclear reactor and corresponding nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor comprising:

• a tank;
• a core comprising a plurality of nuclear fuel assemblies placed in the tank;
• control clusters for controlling the reactivity of the core, and mechanisms configured to move each control cluster in the direction of insertion into the core or in the direction of extraction out of core;
• a primary circuit for cooling the core in which circulates a primary coolant, comprising cold and hot branches pierced in the tank and through which the primary coolant respectively enters into the tank and leaves the tank;
• an injection circuit, configured to selectively inject into the primary coolant fluid a neutron poison or diluent fluid without neutron poison;
• a regulation assembly for regulating operating parameters of the core, the operating parameters comprising at least a mean temperature of the core and an axial power imbalance;
• a device for acquiring a current value of at least one input;
• a device for acquiring a current value of an vector of outputs, the outputs comprising at least the operating parameters;
• the regulation assembly comprising:
• a module for developing a reference value of the vector of outputs, using the current value of the at least one input;
• a supervisor programmed to develop a vector of control values of the nuclear reactor by implementing a predictive control algorithm, using at least said current value of at least one input and the current value of the vector of the outputs;
• a regulator programmed to develop a vector of corrective values for the nuclear reactor controls by implementing a sequenced gain control algorithm, using the current value of the vector of the outputs and the reference value of the vector of the outputs, the sequenced gain control algorithm comprising a plurality of linear regulators, each determined for regulating the operating parameters around a determined operating point of the nuclear reactor, said operating points being scaled to cover a nuclear reactor power range of 25% to 100% of a rated nuclear reactor power;
• a module for developing a vector of corrected values of the nuclear reactor controls, using the vector of the control values developed by the supervisor and the vector of the corrective values of the controls developed by the regulator;
• a module for regulating the operating parameters of the nuclear reactor, by controlling the drive mechanisms to move the control cluster and by controlling the injection circuit to selectively inject into the primary coolant fluid the neutron poison or diluent fluid, using the vector of the corrected values of the controls, the nuclear reactor controls comprising at least one rate of movement of the control clusters and at least one rate of injection of neutron poison or of diluent fluid.