Magnets for fusion reactors and particle accelerators are promising applications for coated conductors. However, the superconductors will be exposed to high-energy neutrons during the operation of these magnets. Fast neutrons induce damage primarily by direct collisions with the lattice atoms that lead to a variety of defects, ranging from so-called collisions cascades with a diameter of a few nanometers down to single displaced atoms and the respective lattice strain. While the large defects are beneficial for the critical currents by serving as pinning centers, the small defects mainly enhance scattering of the charge carriers which is pair breaking in cuprate superconductors; thus reducing both, the transition temperature and the superfluid density. These competing effects lead to a maximum in the critical current as a function of neutron fluence. Unfortunately, the individual contributions of large and small defects cannot be resolved in fast neutron irradiation experiments. Gadolinium containing tapes offer this opportunity by an additional -low-energy neutron induced- point defect producing mechanism. Some Gadolinium isotopes absorb low energy neutrons and the recoil of the following emission of a high-energy phonon is sufficient to displace the respective nucleus. Our experiments show that simultaneous irradiation with low- and high-energy neutrons results in a much faster degradation than fast neutron irradiation. This difference can be ascribed to the small defects resulting from the neutron capture reactions. These results are complemented by data of annealing experiments, where defects are partly healed out and the superconducting properties recover. The superconducting transition temperature turns out to be a suitable parameter to monitor impurity scattering for a description of the degradation of the critical currents in radiation environments.