[2] The facility derives its name from Bruce Township,[3] the local municipality when the plant was constructed, now Kincardine due to amalgamation.

[4] Formerly known as the Bruce Nuclear Power Development (BNPD),[2] the facility was constructed in stages between 1970 and 1987 by the provincial Crown corporation, Ontario Hydro.

In June 2000, OPG entered into a long-term lease agreement with private sector consortium Bruce Power to take over operation.

[5] In November 2009, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) renewed Bruce Power's operating licences for 5 years until 2014 and gave permission to refuel units 1 and 2.

Issues related to the AECL requested design of the tube supports caused repair and delay costs, which exceeded the net worth of the builder Babcock & Wilcox Canada.

Bruce B and all other Ontario Hydro reactors instead use absorber rods called "adjusters" which are normally inserted and are removed to overcome xenon poisoning.

[48] After Units 1–2 completed refurbishment activities and were brought back online in 2012, Bruce became the largest operating nuclear generation facility in the world by both the number of currently operational reactors and total net output capacity, having a total of 8 operational CANDU nuclear reactors with a combined output of 6,384 MWe net (7,276 MWe gross) when all units are online,[49][50] surpassed now by two South-Korean plants: Kori NPP since 2019 and Hanul NPP since 2022.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan had a larger total output capacity, but it has been out of service since 2011.

[55] Compared to the other major Canadian nuclear power plant built earlier, Pickering station, the Bruce reactors have higher power output, achieved by: increasing the number of fuel channels, increasing the number of bundles per channel, and a change in the fuel bundle itself.

[63] On 1 January 2016, Bruce Power began receiving a single contracted price for all output from the site of CA$65.73 per megawatt-hour (MWh).

[64] This price is partially adjusted annually to account for inflation and wage growth, with additional monthly fuel cost adjustments, and it includes a small payment for Bruce's unique ability to curtail up to 2400 MW of generation (total across all eight units – up to 300 MW per individual unit) via steam bypass operation during periods of surplus generation.

The average price per MWh that will be paid to Bruce Power for all electricity generated from 2016 to 2064 (covering the entire refurbishment period for Units 3–6 plus the entire expected remaining post-refurbishment lifetimes of all eight Bruce Power reactors (including the two that were already refurbished) was estimated to be approximately CA$80.6/MWh in 2017 dollars by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario.

"[66] Cobalt-60 (60Co) can be produced in a CANDU reactor by using adjuster rods made primarily out of 59Co (instead of the normal stainless steel), which is slowly transmuted into 60Co via neutron activation (59Co + n → 60Co).

[76] Bruce also began producing High Specific Activity (HSA) 60Co in 2016, which is designed for highly specialized medical uses such as cancer treatment and had been primarily produced at the NRU reactor for the past 60+ years (which was originally scheduled to be shut down in 2016, but will be kept online until 31 March 2018 due to the general worldwide lack of sufficient replacement medical isotope production capacity for several critical isotopes such as molybdenum-99).

[84] In 2017, Bruce Power became the first Canadian recipient of a Top Innovative Practice (TIP) award from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) for its ongoing work with Nordion to produce cobalt-60.

[90] Retubing of Bruce A units was planned in 1992, but deferred, as Ontario Hydro had a surplus of generation at the time.

[94] In April 2007, the auditor general reviewed the refurbishment deal[95] In August 2007, estimated cost for the project had grown to $5.25 billion when Bruce Power decided to replace all 480 fuel channels in Unit 4, which will extend its working life to 2036, in line with the other 3 units of Bruce A.

[101][102] In 2010, a plan to transport decommissioned, low-level radioactive steam generators to Sweden via the Great Lakes caused controversy.

[114] The Bruce station area is the site of OPG's Western Waste Management Facility (WWMF).

[118] In 2013, OPG proposed to construct a Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) for long-term storage of low-and-intermediate level waste on lands adjacent to WWMF.

[10][11] In July 2023, Ontario Minister of Energy Todd Smith announced an intent to build 4.8 GW of new nuclear on the Bruce site, effectively re-starting the plans for Bruce C. [123] It would be the first large-scale nuclear build in Canada for more than three decades, to prepare for increasing electricity demand in the long term.

[13] Encompassed by the Bruce site is the shut-down Douglas Point reactor, an earlier version of the CANDU design.

[13] The present Bruce reactors each are roughly 4 times the capacity of the 200 MW Douglas Point unit.

[131] It was planned to consist of four sub-plants, A through D: During its lifetime, BHWP produced 16,000 tonnes of reactor grade heavy water.

As a condition of the operating licence for Bruce Nuclear, OPG retained a 914 m radius exclusion zone in the northwest corner of the park.

After operating over 25 years the park campground was phased out in 1976, because of safety concerns related to the heavy water production.

[137]: 7 The heated water released back into Lake Huron by the plant prevents the surrounding shoreline from freezing over during winter and attracts an inordinate concentration of lake fish, which in turn attracts droves of bald eagles wintering in the area.

Numbers peak around late February to early March and it is not uncommon for visitors to observe several dozen eagles in and around the general vicinity of the plant at any given time during these months.

[140][141] On 23 September 2001, the plant suffered another PR blow when a man whose boat capsized on Lake Huron near the Bruce complex squeezed through a gate, entered an office building and phoned for help—all undetected.

Aquatic sediment and fish are analysed, as well as livestock feed, honey, eggs, fruits and vegetables.