Douglas Point was built and owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) but operated by Ontario Hydro.

Manby Service Centre in Toronto to manage the construction of a full-scale prototype for future CANDU commercial power plants.

Low-lying Douglas Point, within the latter area, was chosen by the end of June 1959; its solid limestone base made it ideal.

Gordon Churchill, the Minister of Trade and Commerce of Canada, officially announced the decision to build the plant at Douglas Point on 18 June 1959.

In 1961, Douglas Point set up an information office and a Bailey bridge at tree-top level providing a view of the site.

The site was cleared and excavated by 500 workers, including Hydro construction crews from Toronto and locally and provincially hired labour.

This high degree of autarky was a design consideration in the development of the CANDU and led to choices like the Calandria instead of "regular" reactor pressure vessels which were beyond the capabilities of Canadian heavy industry at the time.

It was shipped by barge from Lachine, Quebec to Kincardine, Ontario; from there it was moved 16 kilometres (10 mi) north by flatbed truck to the construction site.

These engineering problems, including the vulnerability of the design to leaks in the primary coolant circuits, are seen and discussed in an official 1968 documentary on the reactor.

Douglas Point was not wholly satisfactory[clarification needed] as an operational power plant and, being too expensive to up-scale, Ontario Hydro refused to purchase it from AECL.