Yeah. Except the operators of such a clandestine plant would be dead 1000 times over from gamma ray exposure. That’s the rub with Thorium, which in all other respects looks excellent as a power source. There is much less waste, but what there is, is powerful and much more radioactive by gamma radiation than U-process waste. That type of radiation is far more damaging to tissue than alpha radiation or neutron radiation.
I don’t know your background obviously but this statement is so overly simplistic as to completely incorrect.
Radiation damages tissue because it carries energy and that energy can be transferred to atoms in the tissue of the body changing the chemical properties of the molecules to which those atoms belong. The more energy the radiation carries the more damage it will cause.
Gamma radiation is far more penetrating than alpha or neutron radiation but also carries far less energy than the other two.
Alpha radiation will not penetrate the dead layers of skin on the body but will do far more damage to tissue than gamma or neutron radiation if the source of the radiation is inside the body (radioactive material swallowed inhaled or absorbed through the skin).
Neutron radiation is more penetrating alpha radiation; it will penetrate the skin and carries far more energy than gamma radiation. Neutrons can also do double damage. A neutron can bounce around ricocheting off of Hydrogen atoms in the cells of the body transferring energy to those atoms causing damage to the cells they are a part of. Finally it is absorbed in to an atom possibly changing that atom from one element to another. It is also likely that the new atom will be radioactive itself. This new radioactive atom is inside the body where it will maximize the damage it can do.
But you left out Beta radiation entirely. Beta radiation is between gamma and neutron in energy level. Beta radiation is more penetrating than alpha but far less than neutron. Some Beta radiation can generate gamma radiation if it strikes a metal object so someone designing components to process nuclear material must take this in to consideration.