As the Bush administration touts its success in securing Russia's gargantuan nuclear weapons complex, it also has chosen not to renew the only U.S. program aimed at turning Russian nuclear weapons scientists and factories to nondefense work.

Administration officials complain that the $20 million-a-year Nuclear Cities Initiative didn't give enough protection to U.S. firms against liability for premeditated acts.

U.S. Energy Department and Russian Minatom officials recently agreed that 69 projects will run until their completion, employing weapons workers at making artificial limbs, oil and gas instruments and medical imaging machines for sale abroad, in lieu of putting their weapons skills on the black market.

But the U.S. decision to let the program expire last week means no new projects will be started. And the administration let a companion program to research disposal of excess U.S. and Russian plutonium to expire in July.

"What they allowed to happen is (let) a dispute between lawyers derail a national security program," said Jon Wolfsthal, a former DOE nonproliferation official who negotiated the agreement during the Clinton administration. "It's like letting the engine drop out of your car because you didn't want to pay the price the mechanic was going to charge for a quart of oil," said Wolfsthal, now deputy director of nonproliferation programs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's very short-sighted."

"It strikes me as overkill," said Kenneth Luongo, executive director of the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council. "It's not clear to me the approach was well thought out, and at the same time you're risking the ability to deal with Russian weapons brain drain."

At a Moscow meeting two weeks ago, Russian officials were mystified that their American counterparts were willing to kill a five-year-old program over a seemingly technical issue. Why, the Russians asked, is it so important to indemnify Americans against intentionally injuring or killing Russians?

"It complicates the work with Russia. But the Department of Energy is hunting for work-arounds," said Bill Dunlop, head of proliferation prevention at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "I'm fairly confident that a work-around can be found."

The reason for the Energy Department's decision lies partly in the Russian judicial system, which would hear lawsuits against U.S. firms engaged in disposing of plutonium or finding new work for Russian scientists. U.S. officials have complained privately that the system is capricious and could rule that all manner of acts are "premeditated."

"The U.S. government and U.S. contractors do not have high confidence in the Russian courts. The suspicion is that if we allow an exception (for premeditated acts), that exception will be used," said Laura S.H. Holgate, vice president for Russia/Newly Independent State programs at the Nuclear Threat Institute, a nonprofit founded by former Sen. Sam Nunn and CNN founder Ted Turner.

In 2001, Pentagon officials targeted the Nuclear Cities Initiative and the plutonium-disposal research for cuts, but both survived a National Security Council review. Some experts suspect administration officials let the programs expire rather than face a budget fight in Congress, where both programs have enthusiastic boosters.

"Given that the Russian government has plans to close a number of facilities in the near future and the concern that a terrorist organization or rogue nation would actively recruit these scientists," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, "it only makes sense to continue with the very program that helps them transition into peaceful, alternative careers."

Administration officials see the cancellation of the two programs as mounting diplomatic pressure on the Russian Duma to ratify a larger, older collection of Defense Department programs for dismantling Russian weaponry. Those programs have full liability protections for U.S. industry.

"This is not some sort of cheap political trick. This is serious," said Henry Sokolski, head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. "If they can't resolve it, they can't proceed. It would put U.S. taxpayers in a tremendous bind."

But experts are hopeful the nuclear cities program will be renewed and soon, before a new round of budget cuts and layoffs hits the world's largest nuclear weapons program.

"Desperate people might be driven to do desperate things, such as sell weapons materials or their skills to terrorists," said the Nuclear Threat Institute's Holgate. "You don't have to be an altruist to say these are people that you don't want desperate and hungry."

One offshoot of the Nuclear Cities Initiative won't be touched by the cancellation. Livermore and other U.S. nuclear cities still enjoy deep ties with their once-secret sister cities in Russia. Former Livermore mayor Cathie Brown hosted four young leaders from Znezinsk last weekend and soon will fly to a larger U.S-Russian gathering in Wisconsin, where she'll practice her Russian.

Canceling the nuclear cities program is "a big mistake," Brown said. "But the relationships are still there. We're all still very much involved."