Maya suffered an accident at the nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union in present-day Russia. They produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. A deposit containing the liquid radioactive residue exploded by spreading a cloud of radioactive material around Kyshtym.

It was sixth on the International Nuclear Accident Scale and was the third most serious nuclear accident ever, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Chernobyl accident, both of the seventh grade.

An area of 1,000 square kilometres was emptied and some 250,000 people suffered high doses of radioactivity. More than 200 people died.