Fast-wave current drive presents a promising scheme for steady-state operation of reactor tokamaks. This scheme is being studied for application in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the Joint European Torus (JET), and the Doublet III-D reactor (DIII-D). There are two regimes that appear to be promising, the low-frequency range 0 < ω < 2ΩD and the lower hybrid frequency range ΩD ≪ ω < ωLH. In the latter scheme, the wavelength of the fast wave becomes much shorter than the alpha-particle gyroradius and alpha-particle absorption can become significant. An analytic formula for alpha-particle absorption of fast waves for the standard slowing down distribution has been derived and compared with electron absorption at ITER parameters. It has been found that at TD > 30 keV and ne ∼ 1014 cm−3, the alpha-particle absorption is large and can greatly decrease the current drive efficiency. However, without sacrificing the fusion reactivity rate, by increasing the density and decreasing the temperature 15 keV < TD < 25 keV, the alpha-particle absorption can become small at a sufficiently high frequency. It is suggested that a simulation of the alpha-particle absorption effect on fast-wave current drive can be made in DIII-D by using a lower frequency source (∼30 MHz) to create a minority tail and a high-frequency source (200 MHz) to drive the current. Results of minority absorption are presented. Effects that can improve current drive efficiency are discussed.