The German waste glasses VG 98/12.2 and GP 98/12.2, a Li-doped version GP 98/12.2 Li and a French waste glass SON 68–18–17 Li were produced as cylinders with different cooling rates and with different additions of simulated high level waste (HLW). The glass cylinders were drop-tested with speeds of up to 125 m/s. No measurable influences of glass compositions or cooling time could be identified. The dominant parameter in size distribution of fracture pieces and fines was the drop velocity (i.e. impact energy) whereas the effects of different glass temperatures during the drop tests and drop ground properties were negligible. Vickers indentation and short rod fractometry tests on pieces surviving the drop tests showed a small but scientifically interesting effect: the fracture toughness Kic increased in the order: base glass, glass containing fission products without noble metals, and glass containing all fission products, and there was a small increase in K[c for faster cooling rates. The effect of the noble metal precipitates was particularly pronounced and was due to crack branching or arrest at the metal precipitates. All these effects, however, were overcompensated by the influence of decreasing K[c in the presence of humidity and by effects of radiation damage: damaged Cm-244 doped glasses and all glasses stored and measured in a dry N2 atmosphere showed a larger increase in Kic than that due to the above differences in composition and cooling rates.