The part about shielding radiation sounds dubious to me. I thought shielding from radiation was mostly about mass. How is that foam supposed to shield better than cast metal of the same weight? Maybe the "foam" deteriorates less?
Not for all types of radiation. Neutron radiation for example is absorbed better by a hydrogen rich material like say polyethylene. But then during absorbtion it would emit gamma rays sometimes, so metal shielding is needed as well.
The composite metal foam that was comparable to lead utilized steel with higher concentrations of tungsten and vanadium.
> The metal foam is made of 2mm-diameter hollow steel spheres in a stainless steel matrix (created using powder metallurgy).