Emergency Core Cooling System
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An Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) is a component in nuclear power plants designed to deal with a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) by providing massive backup sources of coolant.
An ECCS also may be used after a "partial" (incomplete) SCRAM to help bring a runaway reaction under control.
Each power plant has multiple independent ECCS systems, any one of which should be adequate to cool the core.
ECCS systems are nuclear safety-grade components.
ECCS systems can be powered by plant power (as long as the generator is on-line), offsite power, or the plant's Emergency Diesel Generators (another nuclear safety-grade system).
[edit] LOCA response
ECCS systems typically activate automatically upon occurrence of a LOCA (along with other automatic plant actions), to restore cooling as fast as possible so as to prevent a nuclear meltdown.
[edit] See also
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