a municipal division, the town of Bilibino is, together with the selo of Keperveyem, incorporated within Bilibinsky Municipal District as Bilibino Urban Settlement. Economy The town is home to the world's northernmost nuclear power plant, the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant, which opened in January 1974. It is the only nuclear power plant in the Russian Far East and has four reactors, each with an output of 12 MWe. The plant will be progressively shut down and decommissioned, and will be replaced by the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant. The first reactor was shut down at the end of 2018. The nearest operating gold mine is located west of the town. Transportation The region where Bilibino is located has virtually no roads that are usable year-round; even a trip from the Keperveyem Airport to Bilibino town requires a journey along an unpaved road. There is also an unpaved road to the seaport of Zelyony Mys on the Kolyma River near Chersky in the Sakha Republic (around 250 km). Heavier transports use this road. There is a winter-only ice road between Pevek and Bilibino. Demographics In a typical development for the post-Soviet era in the Russian Far East, Bilibino's population dropped significantly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. During the 1989 Soviet Census, the population of Bilibino was 15,558; it fell to 6,181 in the 2002 Census and further down to 5,506 in the 2010 Russian Census. As of January 2010, the ethnic make up of the town was mostly Russians (71%) and Ukrainians (15%); Chukchi people and Evens accounted for 6% and 3%, correspondingly; with all other ethnicities accounting for less than 1% each. Climate Bilibino has a subarctic climate (Dfc) according to the Köppen climate classification. Summers are short and cool with chilly nights, while winters are long, dry and bitterly cold. References Notes Sources Petit Fute. Chukotka. External links Official website of Bilibino Bilibino Business Directory BBC. Description of a visit to the power plant Bilibino Photo Gallery Short film about Bilibino Cities and towns in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Populated places established in 1955 Populated places of Arctic Russia 1955 establishments in Russia Road-inaccessible communities of Russia