area, was chosen by the end of June 1959; its solid limestone base made it ideal. The Hydro Electric Power Commission acquired a area at the site for $50 to $70 an acre, the going price of farm land at the time (1.2 to 1.7 cents per square meter). Gordon Churchill, the Minister of Trade and Commerce, officially announced the decision to build the plant at Douglas Point on 18 June 1959. Construction 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. Contractors included 600 Canadian, plus British and American, firms. Canadian manufacturers supplied 71% of the plant's components, with the remainder coming from British and American manufacturers. The relatively high share of domestic companies and resources used in the construction of this reactor continues to be a feature of CANDU reactors which can now claim a 90+% Canadian supply chain from uranium mine to replacement parts to intermediate storage of spent fuel. 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. The calandria was manufactured by the Dominion Bridge Company of Montreal. It was shipped by barge from Lachine, Quebec to Kincardine, Ontario; from there it was moved north by flatbed truck to the construction site. In May 1964, work began on transmission lines linking Douglas Point to the provincial power grid near Hanover. All the major equipment was installed by 1965. The total cost of the plant was $91 million. Douglas Point had an oil-filled window which allowed direct observation of the East reactor face, even during full-power operation. Operation The Douglas Point reactor first attained criticality on 15 November 1966 at 16:26 hours. It began feeding power into the grid on 7 January 1967 and officially entered service on 26 September 1968 with a 54% capacity factor. The plant made its first on-power fuelling (i.e. refuelling the reactor without having to shut down) on 1 March 1970. This CANDU feature was first demonstrated by NPD on 23 November 1963. While light water reactors are usually not capable of this feat, heavy water