It is located 31 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

OPAL consists of leading neutron radiation facilities and attracts international scientists as its staff members and many hundreds of third-party users.

[3] Spent fuel from the OPAL research reactor is transported to Port Kembla, then exported to France for reprocessing.

[5] Lucas Heights also hosts a (non-nuclear) waste management facility, which was for many years a major disposal site for sanitary carters.

Due to its elevation, Lucas Heights is one of the few places in Sydney that has a borderline Oceanic (Cfb) and a Humid subtropical climate (Cfa).