The calculation of the core source term is affected by various factors, such as fuel consumption, enrichment, specific power, and operation mode. The activity of lanthanides, fission products, and the photon source strength were calculated using the ORIGEN program. The weights of each factor were calculated by multivariate analysis of variance. The results show that the radioactivity of actinides and fission products increased with the increase in fuel consumption. As enrichment increased, the radioactivity of fission products and actinides decreased. The radioactivity of fission products and actinides increased linearly with the change in specific power, with a correlation coefficient of 1. The changes in fuel consumption and enrichment have little effect on low-energy photons, but significantly affected high-energy photons. The change in specific power has little effect on the photon generation of different energy groups. The operation mode has little effect on the radioactivity of the nucleus and fission products. Multivariate analysis of variance shows that specific power is the most influential factor, followed by enrichment; the least influential factor is fuel consumption.