The town is situated in the Ural Mountains, 80 kilometers south of Ekaterinburg and 20 kilometers north of Kasli, on the lake Sinara. It occupies the territory of 36 849 hectares, 27 838 hectares out of them is woodland.

Snezhinsk was established on April 5, 1955, and initially was known as the Scientific Research Institute 1011. It is one of five "secret cities" in the Ural Mountains that formed the Soviet "nuclear archipelago." Approximately one-third of personnel from Arzamas-16 was moved there, the first specialists arriving to the site in August of 1955. Already in 1957, a thermonuclear device designed there, was tested successfully.

Snezhinsk is the home of one of the largest nuclear research centers of the country - the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. Snezhinsk also has a Technical Institute of Physics - one of two principal warhead design centers in Russia (Sarov or Arzamas-16 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.

The primary mission of Technical Institute of Physics is designing of 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.

In 1995, Technical Institute of Physics 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, Technical Institute of Physics 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, Technical Institute of Physics is marketing to qualified recipients a range of technical products and services related to nuclear engineering, production of nuclear isotopes, explosives, supercomputing, computer modeling, and advanced research in physics.

AT PRESENT TIME, Snezhinsk is constantly developing. Accumulation of capital is taking place in small-scale business.

During the last years, investments have made up 2364.8 million roubles, including capital investments – 1959.6 million roubles. Material welfare of the citizens is also growing: living floor area in 2002 has made up 12.4 square meters per person, the number of cars – 22.6 per person.

One large-scale enterprise – State Unitary Enterprise “Transenergo”, 7 small-scale enterprises and 26 privately owned industrial enterprises are registered on the territory of Snezhinsk. 3 594 people or 13.7% out of the total number of employed citizens work there. During 2002, the output of products (production and technical sphere) and industrial services had made up 448.8 million roubles, what is 0.9% more as compared to the same period of 2001.

The number of population registered on January 1, 2003, was 50 000 people. 45% have higher education. In 2002, a record number of children, born in the town, was registered – 415. The number of residents is constantly growing.

There are 44 Doctors of Science and 256 Candidates of Science. More than 80% of the school leavers enter the universities.

A large sports palace with a stand for 800 people is situated here. There are 120 masters of sports and 489 candidates.

The main patient care institution - is the Central Medico-Sanitary Unit № 15: the State public health institution of Federal department of medico-biologic and extreme problems attached to the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation.

Twin cities of Snezhinsk - are Livermore (USA) and Chkalovsk (Tadzhikistan).

Being a closed town, Snezhinsk is opened for everything new, for constructive cooperation and mutually beneficial partnership.

US Consulate SNEZHINSK - http://usa.snezhinsk.ural.ru/us/business.htm