ABSTRACT
Vitrification is the process of converting a material to a glassy form. The origin of the word (from the Latin vitrum, meaning glass) already suggests the fact that glassy materials and the art of glass-making have been known for thousands of years. The long history of this versatile material spans such diverse areas as art and ornamentation, containers, windows, optical components, fiber reinforcement, fiber optics, and electro-optics. However, glass as a waste form — that is, a material form in which to safely stabilize waste substances — is a relatively recent application with origins in the 1950s in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
