YAKIMA -- An appellate court has overturned a lower court's ruling barring the Energy Department from reclassifying high-level waste at a nuclear site in Washington state, saying it was too soon to consider opponents' claims.

A federal judge in Idaho last year barred the Energy Department from reclassifying the waste after the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Snake River Alliance, the Yakama Nation and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes filed suit.

The Energy Department maintains that some highly radioactive residue in the waste tanks is too expensive to extract. The department has proposed reclassifying it as less dangerous, combining it with concrete grout and leaving it in place.