Lucas Heights is a suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 in southern

Southern Sydney

This article refers to an area the same as a combination of St George and SutherlandSouthern Sydney is a general term which is used to describe the southern metropolitan area of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia....

 Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, in the state of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Lucas Heights is located 31 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district

Sydney central business district

The Sydney central business district is the main commercial centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It extends southwards for about 3 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of first European settlement. Its north–south axis runs from Circular Quay in the north to Central railway station in...

, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire

Sutherland Shire

The Sutherland Shire is a Local Government Area in the Southern Sydney region of Sydney, Australia. Geographically, it is the area to the south of Botany Bay and the Georges River...

.

Lucas Heights is located on the Woronora River

Woronora River

The Woronora River flows north from near Helensburgh into the Georges River between Como and Illawong.- Crossings :The river is crossed by high level and low level road bridges and a footbridge in Woronora, New South Wales...

, which flows north into the Georges River

Georges River

The Georges River is a waterway in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It rises to the south-west of Sydney near the coal mining town of Appin, and then flows north past Campbelltown, roughly parallel to the Main South Railway...

. Lucas Heights is an unusual suburb in that it doesn't contain a residential area. The residential area previously part of Lucas Heights has been renamed Barden Ridge

Barden Ridge, New South Wales

Barden Ridge is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Barden Ridge is located 31 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire...

. It was renamed in 1996 to increase the real estate value of the area, so it was not instantly associated with the HIFAR nuclear reactor.

History

Lucas Heights was named after John Lucas Senior, a flour miller who in 1823 was granted 150 acre (0.607029 km²) on the 'head of unnamed stream into Georges River'. He built a water-driven mill for grinding corn from the Illawarra

Illawarra

Illawarra is a region in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a coastal region situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and the town of Kiama. The central region contains Lake...

 farms. Small ships sailed up the coast into Botany Bay

Botany Bay

Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...

, Georges River and Woronora River.

Commercial areas

Lucas Heights is most notable for being the site of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is a statutory body of the Australian government, formed in 1987 to replace the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. Its head office and main facilities are in southern outskirts of Sydney at Lucas Heights, in the Sutherland Shire...

 (ANSTO) research establishment originally established by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission

Australian Atomic Energy Commission

The Australian Atomic Energy Commission was a statutory body of the Australian government.It was established in 1952, replacing the Atomic Energy Policy Committee. In 1981 parts of the Commission were split off to become part of CSIRO, the remainder continuing until 1987, when it was replaced by...

 and home to the historic HIFAR

HIFAR

High Flux Australian Reactor was Australia's first nuclear reactor. It was built at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment at Lucas Heights....

 research nuclear reactor

Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...

. HIFAR was shut down in January 2007 and replaced by the OPAL

OPAL

OPAL is a 20 megawatt pool-type nuclear research reactor that was officially opened on 20 April 2007 at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Research Establishment at Lucas Heights, located in South Sydney, Australia.The main reactor uses are:* Irradiation of target...

 research reactor. OPAL bears leading neutron radiation

Neutron radiation

Neutron radiation is a kind of ionizing radiation which consists of free neutrons. A result of nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, it consists of the release of free neutrons from atoms, and these free neutrons react with nuclei of other atoms to form new isotopes, which, in turn, may produce...

 facilities and attracts international scientists as staff members and many hundreds of user groups. In the past, the HIFAR

HIFAR

High Flux Australian Reactor was Australia's first nuclear reactor. It was built at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment at Lucas Heights....

 reactor was suggested a possible target for terrorist activities http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4434270.stm. The area is also visible in detail on Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

 Maps

Google Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

, which caused some concerns regarding its security.

Lucas Heights is the location of a non-nuclear waste management facility, which was for many years a major disposal site for sanitary carters. Some of the full landfills on this site are presently being sequentially redeveloped into a sporting complex containing playing fields for soccer, netball

Netball

Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

, rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 and the home of the award-winning 'The Ridge' Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

driving range.