Oskarshamn Municipality


Oskarshamn Municipality is a municipality in Kalmar County in south-eastern Sweden, where the city Oskarshamn is seat.
The amalgamations in the present municipality took place in 1967 when three rural municipalities joined the City of Oskarshamn, which was transformed into a municipality of unitary type in 1971.
In 1966 construction started on the first nuclear power plant, OKG, within the present municipality. Since then two more reactors have been built and the plant today produces about 10% of Sweden's electricity. Oskarshamn Municipality is today considered to be a possible location of the Swedish nuclear waste storage.

Coat of arms

Oskarshamn was named after King Oscar I of Sweden. The top of the coat of arms show the insignia of the King. In the other fields there are symbols for shipping, trade and wealth.
Its current design stems from 1942, but it basically only differes from the old in the alignment of the symbols. The coat of arms was re-used for the new municipality after 1971 and the arms of Döderhult and Misterhult became obsolete.

Localities

There are nine urban areas in Oskarshamn Municipality.
In the table the localities are listed according to the size of the population as of December 31, 2005. The municipal seat is in bold characters.
#LocalityPopulation
1Oskarshamn17,143
2Påskallavik1,077
3Kristdala994
4Figeholm802
5Fårbo520
6Mysingsö398
7Emsfors 1)353
8Bockara351
9Saltvik285

1) A minor part of Emsfors is in Mönsterås Municipality

Politics

The Swedish Social Democratic Party has been governing the city and later the municipality since 1932, however not always forming an absolute majority. It usually builds a majority with the Left Party of Sweden. All parties that are represented in the Riksdag are also represented in the municipal assembly kommunfullmäktige.

Media

Oskarshamn has two local newspapers: Oskarshamns-Tidningen and Nyheterna.

Notability

The Blå Jungfrun is a small island outside the coast, between the mainland and the island of Öland, and is classified as a national park.