[en] It is desirable to obtain an experimental check of the reliability of the methods currently used to determine reactivity changes in a reactor and, with a view to meeting this requirement to some extent, a preliminary comparison has been made between calculated and measured cross-section changes in rods of natural uranium irradiated in NRX. The measurements were made at Harwell in the GLEEP reactor and a description has been given by, inter alia, Ward and Craig. The theory of the calculations, which is briefly described in this report, has been indicated by Littler. The investigation showed that the methods for calculating burn up used at present provides a good illustration of the long-term variations in isotope contents. A satisfactory agreement is obtained with experimental results when calculating apparent cross-section changes in uranium rods due to irradiation if the fission cross- section for ²³⁹Pu is set to 780 b. This is 34 b higher than the figure quoted in BNL - 325 (1958). However, in order to get a good idea as to whether the calculated long-term variations in reactivity really correspond to reality, it is necessary to make further investigations. For this reason the results quoted in this report should be regarded as preliminary