Los Angeles, Dec. 2 (AP): Neutron bomb inventor Samuel T. Cohen, who in 1958 designed the tactical nuclear weapon intended to kill people but do minimal damage to cities, has died in Los Angeles at 89.

Cohen’s son Paul told the Los Angeles Times and New York Times yesterday that his father died of stomach cancer on Sunday. Cohen advocated for the neutron bomb as a more moral alternative to other nuclear weapons.

The neutron bomb used tiny particles that could zip through objects with minimal damage but kill humans. The US developed the weapon in the 1980s, but it was never widely embraced.