We study large values of the remainder term in the asymptotic formula for the number of irreducible integers in an algebraic number field K. In the case when the class number h of K is larger than 1, under certain technical condition on multiplicities of non-trivial zeros of Hecke L-functions, we detect oscillations larger than what one could expect on the basis of the classical Littlewood’s omega estimate for the remainder term in the prime number formula. In some cases the main result is unconditional. It is proved that this is always the case when h = 2.