At a scientific conference on 26–28 February 1942 at the

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, called by the Army

Weapons Office, Heisenberg presented a lecture to Reichs
officials on energy acquisition from nuclear fission.[86] The
lecture, entitled "Die theoretischen Grundlagen für die
Energiegewinnung aus der Uranspaltung" ("The theoretical
basis for energy generation from uranium fission") was, as
Heisenberg confessed after the Second World War in a letter
to Samuel Goudsmit, "adapted to the intellectual level of a
Reichs Minister".[87] Heisenberg lectured on the enormous
energy potential of nuclear fission, stating that 250 million A visual representation of an induced
electron volts could be released through the fission of an nuclear fission event where a slow-
atomic nucleus. Heisenberg stressed that pure U-235 had to moving neutron is absorbed by the
be obtained to achieve a chain reaction. He explored various nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, which
ways of obtaining isotope 235 92U in its pure form, including
fissions into two fast-moving lighter
uranium enrichment and an alternative layered method of elements (fission products) and
normal uranium and a moderator in a machine. This machine, additional neutrons. Most of the energy
he noted, could be used in practical ways to fuel vehicles, ships released is in the form of the kinetic
and submarines. Heisenberg stressed the importance of the velocities of the fission products and the
Army Weapons Office's financial and material support for this neutrons.
scientific endeavour. A second scientific conference followed.
Lectures were heard on problems of modern physics with
decisive importance for the national defense and economy. The conference was attended by Bernhard
Rust, the Reichs Minister of Science, Education and National Culture. At the conference, Reichs
Minister Rust decided to take the nuclear project away from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The Reichs
Research Council was to take on the project.[88] In April 1942 the army returned the Physics Institute
to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, naming Heisenberg as Director at the Institute. With this appointment
at the KWIP, Heisenberg obtained his first professorship.[62] Peter Debye was still director of the
institute, but had gone on leave to the United States after he had refused to become a German citizen
when the HWA took administrative control of the KWIP. Heisenberg still also had his department of
physics at the University of Leipzig where work had been done for the Uranverein by Robert Döpel
and his wife Klara Döpel.[31][85]

On 4 June 1942, Heisenberg was summoned to report to Albert Speer, Germany's Minister of
Armaments, on the prospects for converting the Uranverein's research toward developing nuclear
weapons. During the meeting, Heisenberg told Speer that a bomb could not be built before 1945,
because it would require significant monetary resources and number of personnel.[89][90]

After the Uranverein project was placed under the leadership of the Reichs Research Council, it
focused on nuclear power production and thus maintained its kriegswichtig (importance for the war)
status; funding therefore continued from the military. The nuclear power project was broken down
into the following main areas: uranium and heavy water production, uranium isotope separation and
the Uranmaschine (uranium machine, i.e., nuclear reactor). The project was then essentially split up
between a number of institutes, where the directors dominated the research and set their own
research agendas.[82][91][92] The point in 1942, when the army relinquished its control of the German
nuclear weapons program, was the zenith of the project relative to the number of personnel. About 70
scientists worked for the program, with about 40 devoting more than half their time to nuclear fission
research. After 1942, the number of scientists working on applied nuclear fission diminished
dramatically. Many of the scientists not working with the main institutes stopped working on nuclear
fission and devoted their efforts to more pressing war-related work.[93]