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Snezhinsk 

2003 Population: 48,300

Latitude/Longitude: N56º04', E60º44'

Alternate name: Cheliabinsk-70
("Snezhinsk" translated into English means "snowflake")

Situated in the Ural Mountains, 80 km south of Ekaterinburg and 20 km north of Kasli, on lake Sinara. A river by the same name flows into lake Sinara.

Snezhinsk is one of five "secret cities" in the Ural Mountains that formed the Soviet "nuclear archipelago." Like Sarov (aka Arzamas-16), Snezhinsk is the home of one of the country's largest nuclear research centers, its formal name being the Russian Federal Nuclear Center (RFIaTs-VNIIEF). Snezhinsk also has a Technical Institute of Physics (VNIITF), one of Russia's two principal warhead design centers (Sarov is the other one). About 80% of the adult population is employed by either the Nuclear Center or the Institute of Physics. The existence of the Institute and the city was not made public until 1992.

Snezhinsk was established on April 5, 1955, and initially was known as the Scientific Research Institute 1011. Approximately one-third of Sarov's personnel was moved there, the first specialists arriving to the site in August 1955. Already in 1957, a thermonuclear device designed there was successfully tested.

The primary mission of VNIITF is designing nuclear weapons and providing scientific support to nuclear weapons throughout their life cycle. The Institute is responsible for all gravity bombs and SLMBM warheads as well as for other types of strategic and tactical weapons. It has extensive theoretical and experimental capabilities for designing and nonnuclear testing of nuclear weapons as well as extensive facilities for conducting high-explosives experiments.

The city's restricted area is a rectangular area measuring 6 by 10 km. The fence encloses both the Snezhinsk township and most of the VNIITF facilities, including "Site 20," which is 6 km west of the town.

In 1995, VNIITF joined the Russian-American Laboratory-to-Laboratory program. The initial focus of this cooperation has been to design and implement nuclear materials protection, control and accounting (MPC&A). Even though VNIITF has become one of the principal Russian institutes working in the program, implementation of the MPC&A proposed programs has been very slow because of budgetary constraints. Currently, VNIITF is marketing to qualified recipients a range of technical products and services related to nuclear engineering, nuclear isotope production, explosives, supercomputing, computer modeling, and advanced research in physics.