During one hour in the middle of the day, France imported 5,990 megawatts of electricity or six reactors' worth, said the website of the RTE electricity network, a subsidiary of national electricity supplier EDF.

France has traditionally been an exporter of electricity, but nationwide strike action by workers including at utilities such as the EDF combined with maintenance work at several reactors means France is now an importer.

Sixteen of France's 58 reactors are currently closed, 12 for maintenance and four because of unplanned technical issues, an EDF spokeswoman said.

"EDF is paying for the lack of investment in its reactors," said Laurent Langlard of the powerful CGT union's energy branch.

Electricity workers in southwestern France said they have also cut electricity to 15 town halls controlled by the UMP party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made pension reform a key policy of his mandate, the CGT said.

earlier related report
French strikes intensify
Paris (UPI) Oct 19, 2010 - More than 1 million people took the streets in France Tuesday as some of the striking against the planned pension reforms turned violent.

Wearing their trademark golden helmets, French firefighters were hosing down burning cars in downtown Lyon Tuesday. Rioters had not only torched vehicles but looted stores and clashed with police in the most violent demonstrations against the government's pension reform yet.

The French interior ministry said 1.1 million people demonstrated across the country Tuesday, while the CGT union said the number was 3.5 million.

While the large majority of demonstrations were peaceful, youths hurled stones at police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, who answered by firing tear gas, the BBC reports. In Le Mans, a high school was burned, German newspaper Bild said. It was unclear, however, whether the fire was related to the demonstrations.

The government's pension reform is aimed at gradually raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018 and full retirement from 65 to 67 by 2023. The bill is currently being debated in the Senate. A final vote is expected this week.

The nationwide strikes against the measure have paralyzed transport, sparked fuel shortages and disrupted school life.

Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said some 4,000 gas stations were experiencing fuel shortages because work at all of France's 12 oil refineries has been disrupted. A strike at the Fos-Lavera terminal, France's largest, is in its 22nd day, with dozens of oil tankers stranded off the French coast.

Flights in and out of Paris were delayed or canceled due to ground crew strikes. Only a limited number of Metro trains were running in Paris and many regional and national trains were canceled.

CGT union officials have called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow for negotiations with the unions.

Sarkozy, who is battling record-low popularity ratings, called for calm but vowed to stick to his pension overhaul plans. They are aimed at securing a system as people are getting older and fitter, while there are fewer young people born to pay for the pensions of their parents and grandparents, Sarkozy argues.

"The biggest oversight would be to not do my job and to not ensure the financing of retirement pensions for today and tomorrow," he was quoted by BBC News as saying.

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