A trash rack for an emergency core cooling system of a nuclear power plant comprises at least one wire-mesh upright screen for filtering debris from coolant flowing in the cooling system. The upright screen is mounted in the coolant flow path with its bottom edge on the floor of an area forming part of the cooling system and a top edge is disposed above the floor at a height less than the level to which the coolant can be expected to rise during a loss of cooling accident. The trash rack also uniquely includes a wire-mesh roof screen that has a downstream edge mated with the top edge of the upright screen and extending upstream thereof to an upstream end spaced from the floor, thereby presenting an unobstructed opening between the floor and the upstream edge of the roof screen.