Abstract As the development of computer science technology and the requirement of thorough research, more researchers are setting their eyes on coupling method because of the tight coupling in NPP (nuclear power plant) system. However there were few researches studying the difference between decoupling and coupling methods and the importance of coupling method. This research respectively establishes the primary and secondary loop decoupling models and the two loops coupling model based on the small NPP by APROS. Then the differences between the decoupling and coupling models is studied under the steady state and dynamic state which contains the ramp load variation and load shedding. The results show that there are small differences between these models in the main parameter values under the steady state. But the differences between decoupling models and coupling model are large. Therefore the NPP system needs be modeled by coupling method as to study its dynamic characteristic.