THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF ATOMIC PROPERTIES OF HIGH-Z HEDL PLASMAS. THERE IS A RENEWED INTEREST IN STUDYING CONTINUUM HARD-PHOTON K-SHELL YIELDS FROM Z-PINCH IMPLOSIONS FOR “WARM” >15 KEV X-RAY PRODUCTION AND IN SCALING TO THE FUTURE HIGH-CURRENT Z-PINCH GENERATORS. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES INCLUDE GENERATION OF L-SHELL LINE OR CONTINUUM EMISSION OF HIGHER-Z ELEMENTS SUCH AS, FOR EXAMPLE, TUNGSTEN (W) AND GOLD (AU). PRODUCTION OF K-SHELL CONTINUUM EMISSION IN THE “WARM” PHOTON ENERGY RANGE AS WELL AS ALTERNATIVE METHODS MENTIONED ABOVE AND WHICH WILL BE USED IN THE PROPOSED PROJECT, ARE CONCEIVABLE EMISSION-MECHANISM OPTIONS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION PULSED POWER (NGPP) FACILITY. THEREFORE, THERE IS AN INCREASING DEMAND IN CONTINUUM EMISSION MEASUREMENTS AND UNDERSTANDING ITS CONTRIBUTION IN THE TOTAL RADIATION YIELD FROM HIGH-Z HEDL PLASMAS AT UNIVERSITY-SCALE Z-PINCH DEVICES. TRAINING AND MENTORING OF THE NEW WORKFORCE IN HEDL PHYSICS CONTINUES TO BE AN IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH. THE GRADUATE STUDENTS WILL GREATLY BENEFIT FROM SUCH A PROJECT BY LEARNING DIFFERENT HEDL PLASMA EXPERIMENTS, VARIOUS DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES INCLUDING PLASMA SPECTROSCOPY, ATOMIC PROCESSES IN PLASMAS AND THEIR DESCRIPTIONS, THEORETICAL CODES, AND METHODS OF THE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA.