Upon acquiring the Romulan Hyper-Plasma torp launcher and trying it out, I have discovered that, if I am close to the detonation, the plasma fire is applied to me as well as to the target. Is this how it is meant to work--an AOE explosion that does NOT discriminate between friend and foe and can damage the ship that fires it (i.e. similar to the Tricobalt blast)?

Working as intended

Torpedoes are destroyable, this is to prevent you from parking nose-first into the enemy and unleashing plasma-ey goodness without any counter.

Oh I knew about the destroyable part--I just wasn't certain about the "AOE damages the firing ship as well as enemies" part. Thanks!

The spash damage is meant to be a deterrent from unleashing the high damage torpdoes (and mines) point blank against a target. Being unleaashed point blank doesn't allow the target to defend against these destructible objects.