The boronizing effect on the radiation shielding properties and magnetization of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel has been investigated. For this purpose the linear attenuation coefficients of steel have been measured at the photon energies of 662,1170 and 1332 key and the results were compared with the calculation at the photon energy of 1-10(8) keV. It was clearly seen from this work that both the magnetization and radiation shielding properties of the steel have been improved by boronizing process. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.