Insights into long-term glass corrosion mechanisms from the Ballidon project: a 50-year-old glass burial experiment in an alkaline near surface environment.

The Ballidon experiment, established in 1970 to better understand the corrosion of ancient and modern glass types under alkaline conditions, is now one of the worlds longest running glass corrosion studies. Since its conception, the experimental focus has been expanded, with the burial of additional borosilicate and iron phosphate glasses representative of vitrified radioactive wastes, from the UK, US, and Russia, to gain insight into their long-term durability. Here we explore what can be learned from the analysis of the nine original glass types after 52 years of burial at Ballidon, with respect to the experiments original aims and more recent objectives.