Kansai Electric Power Company  , also known as , is an electric utility with its operational area of Kansai region, Japan (including the Kobe-Osaka-Kyoto megalopolis). The Kansai region is Japan's second-largest industrial area, and in normal times, its most nuclear-reliant. Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a band of 11 nuclear reactors – north of the major cities Osaka and Kyoto – supplied almost 50 percent of the region's power. As of January 2012, only one of those reactors was still running. In March 2012, the last reactor was taken off the powergrid. Kansai Electric Power Company has 164 plants with a total production capacity of 35,760 MW. On 9 August 2004, KEPCO reported that five of its employees were killed by a steam burst in the turbines housing building, at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture. The burst, according to KEPCO, was due to the neglect of mandated safety checks and there was no release of radioactivity. On 22 March 2006, in Ōi Nuclear Power Plant, at the waste incineration facility area, where ash is packed in steel barrels, a fire broke out. Two workers were admitted to a hospital after inhaling smoke, but not in critical condition. No radiation leakage was monitored. The Kansai region is Japan's second-largest industrial area, and in normal times, its most nuclear-reliant. Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a band of 11 nuclear reactors – north of the major cities Osaka and Kyoto – supplied almost 50 percent of the region's power. But as of January 2012, only one of those reactors is still running. Meanwhile, power company employees are racing to reassure Japanese that plants are safe and necessary. In 2012, officials from Kansai Electric Power Co., "have gone door to door in towns that host its nuclear plants, conducting polls and answering questions". Eiji Moriyama, the former deputy mayor of Takahama now deceased, was the primary "fixer" between Kepco and businesses in Takahama. Beginning as early as 1987, Moriyama was a conduit for funneling cash and gifts to Kepco officials in exchange for kickbacks and contracts to real estate and construction-related firms. Moriyama received "consulting fees" for his help. The earliest indication of the corrupt relations between Kepco and local businesses appeared in a report from the taxation authorities, regarding unreported income on "idle lands".