Abstract: Based on the present MODE-G control strategy,an improved new core control strategy is developed for the initial cycle utilizing gadolinium burnable poisons.With the relaxed axial offset control（RAOC） procedure to limit the core axial offset（AO） in a band region,load follow operations are simulated under the improved core control strategy and the simulation results are compared with those obtained using MODE-G control strategy.Additionally,a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the an ejected rod with the improved core control strategy is performed.It is shown that the improved core control strategy can control the core axial power distribution more satisfactorily and effectively.