  High-resolution simulations of the cooling regions of spherically symmetric
supernova remnants demonstrate a strong radiative instability. This
instability, whose presence is dependent on the shock velocity, causes
large-amplitude fluctuations in the shock velocity. The fluctuations begin
almost immediately after the radiative phase begins (upon shell formation) if
the shock velocity lies in the unstable range; they last until the shock slows
to speeds less than approximately 130 km/s. We find that shock-velocity
fluctuations from the reverberations of waves within the remnant are small
compared to those due to the instability. Further, we find (in plane-parallel
simulations) that advected inhomogeneities from the external medium do not
interfere with the qualitative nature of the instability-driven fluctuations.
Large-amplitude inhomogeneities may alter the phases of shock-velocity
fluctuations, but do not substantially reduce their amplitudes.
