The general licence is issued by the Swiss Federal Council. Following the natural disasters in Japan, which resulted in the reactor accidents at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, on 14 March 2011 Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard suspended the general licensing procedures for the replacement of existing nuclear power plants. The project was not further pursued; the project company " Kernkraftwerk Niederamt AG" was formally dissolved in 2017. On January 1, 2018 an amendment (article 12a) to the Swiss Nuclear Energy Act ("Kernenergiegesetz") came into effect, prohibiting the issuing of new general licences for nuclear power plants.