Man posthumously recognized for heroism during Three Mile Island disaster

Reporter

MT. PENN, Pa. - Kevin Fountain of Mount Penn reads from a recently-received certificate from state Rep. Mark Rozzi, detailing his father's heroic acts on a fateful day in history.

“I think he was up for it. He was a flannel shirt wearing guy that would get his hands dirty when he needed to,” said Fountain.

His late father, Ronald Fountain, worked as an auxiliary control room operator at Three Mile Island and died in 2020.

Kevin says his father being left out of a recent documentary about the partial meltdown, and worries about his dad's story dying with him, are motivating him to take action.

“The heating rods, the uranium rods, were overheating and a computerized valve I think got jammed,” said Fountain. "My dad had to go into this radiation environment with a respirator, two minutes of air, and it was on the second level where he had to jimmy this valve."

Kevin says his late father was exposed to the equivalent of 270 x-rays worth of radiation.

“I have my TMI-induced PTSD. I'm highly motivated to make sure he's remembered,” Fountain said. “My family wasn't given a voice and I realized that my dad had never been acknowledged despite him stepping into the spotlight on a national platform."

He says the recent certificate received from Rozzi's office is something he wants to build on.

"It means a lot to me,” Fountain said. “I want to curate enough awards, medals and citations, whatever my dad deserves, and donate it to a museum to make sure my dad's not erased from the story.”

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