Gonzalez Merino, AlbertoAlbertoGonzalez MerinoCostas de la Peña, LuisLuisCostas de la PeñaGonzález, ArturoArturoGonzález2018-11-202018-11-202017 the A2017-09-20Energy Procediahttp://hdl.handle.net/10197/9554Free-standing racks are 5 m tall structures that store spent fuel removed from the nuclear power reactor on the depths of a spent fuel pool. Rack units are arranged on the floor of this 12 meters deep pool separated by only a few centimeters. Their response to an earthquake event is a troubling safety issue as they are in submerged and free-standing conditions. Such a seismic analysis deals with a highly nonlinear behavior, a transient dynamic response and a fluid-structure interaction problem. To overcome these difficulties in a cost-effective manner, the current analysis methodology implements the hydrodynamic mass concept in commercial finite element analysis software. However, some dispersion of results still exists in the application of this ad-hoc methodology. This paper reviews the seven major sources of uncertainty inherent to the current analysis methodology together with the main challenges of the seismic analysis.enThis is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy Procedia. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy Procedia (127, (2017)) DOI:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.114UncertaintySeismic analysisFree-standingRacksFluid-structure interactionNonlinearTransient analysisHydrodynamic massJournal Article12731031910.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.1142018-04-12https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/