Abstract Radioactivities induced in SS-316 samples in a thick SS-316 shield material bombarded with 14 MeV neutrons were measured after cooling times ranging from several hours to 8 months. Experiments focusing in particular on deep locations where the (n, γ) reactions are dominant were analyzed by activation inventory codes ACT4 and REAC∗3, and the activation cross-section libraries the JENDL activation file, the data library associated with the REAC∗3 code system and FENDL/A1.1. The ratio of calculated to experimental results gave a practical uncertainty range for the calculations with the presently available code systems. It was shown experimentally that not only activation cross-sections but also neutron spectrum calculations are sources of large uncertainties in the calculation of radioactivities.