Critical current enhancement in (Bi,Pb)(2)Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 tapes via isotropicquasi-columnar defects, induced by uranium fission products

UO4 are added to precursor powders of (Bi,Pb)(2)Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 and then textu red by PIT technique into Ag-BiSCCO tapes. Tapes are then irradiated with t hermal neutrons to fission U-235. Fission products create short quasi-colum nar defects that act as pinning centers. Transport properties, before and a fter irradiation, are investigated. Several features emerge from these stud ies. B-irr increases by a factor of similar to2 at fluence, F(n)similar to 2x10(16) cm(-2). I-c increases by a factor similar to 4, for B//ab = 2 T, a nd by factor similar to 100, for B//c = 0.8 T. The highest I-c enhancement shifts toward higher fluence as the applied field increases. The intrinsic BiSCCO anisotropy is reduced up to a factor of 100.