The possibility of using the 14.7 MeV protons produced in the D-3 He fusion reaction to sustain the current and heat the plasma in a field reversed configuration reactor is investigated. A Monte Carlo code that includes particle drag and pitch angle scattering is employed to follow the trajectories of the fusion born protons and calculate the resulting current and deposited power. It is found that for the parameters of the proposed ARTEMIS (Momota et al 1992 Fusion Technol.21 2307) conceptual reactor design a significant current (40–46 MA) could result, depending on the plasma current induced by the protons, which is not calculated. The effect of changing the shape of the plasma equilibrium is also investigated.