ISTANBUL — If they had entered into service by now, Turkey's two prospective nuclear power plants could help the country reduce its energy import bill by $7.2 billion in addition to generating 32 percent of its electricity, a Turkish nuclear energy official said on Saturday.

"Turkey's demand for electricity increases as its population grows. (...) Turkey needs nuclear energy to meet this ever-growing demand," Necati Yamaç, head of the nuclear energy department in Turkey's Energy Ministry, said during the International Energy and Environment Fair and Conference (ICCI 2014) in Istanbul.

Turkey's electricity demand, which is currently around 239 billion kWh, is expected to be around 500 billion kWh a year in 2023. Turkey generates 46 percent of its electricity from natural gas, 98 percent of which comes from imports. This is nearly double the global average of 25 percent use of natural gas in power generation.In addition to power generation, the prospective Akkuyu nuclear power plant will create 20,000 jobs during its construction period, and it will provide employment for 7,000 people in the course of its operation with an expected lifecycle of 60 years, said Yamaç.

Despite the security concerns raised following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, construction of 72 nuclear power plants around the world is still in progress; 435 nuclear power plants in 31 countries are in use, and an additional 237 are expected to come on line by 2030. Quality and security are the significant points for the construction of the Akkuyu plant, as quality expectation and administration are highly related to safety, said Beril Tuğrul, head of the nuclear research department at Istanbul Technical University.