A photoresonant‐pumped x‐ray laser scheme using Be and Ne is considered. In this scheme the Beiv2p‐1stransition at 75.93 A˚ is used to pump the Nevii2s‐4plevel at 75.77 A˚. The wavelength mismatch can be decreased by either a bulk Doppler shift of the Be plasma produced by hydrodynamic expansion which requires a velocity of 6×107cm/s, or by opacity broadening of the Beivpump line, or by a combination of both. To investigate the viability of this particular scheme, preliminary studies were made of the Be plasma by focusing 14 to 24‐J, 3‐ns pulses of 1054‐nm laser light onto a planar Be target. Using a time‐of‐flight technique, it is found that the velocity needed to Doppler shift the Beivpump line into resonance with the Nevii2s‐4ptransition does not develop until at least 10 ns after the peak of the driving laser pulse. Spatially resolved time‐integrated spectral measurements indicate that by this time the Beivemissions have greatly decreased in intensity and this suggests that the needed bulk Doppler shift is difficult to achieve while still maintaining sufficient pump power. However, the observed opacity broadening of the Beivpump line (0.7 A˚ FWHM) is found to be sufficient to create significant spectral overlap between the nearly resonant lines to allow photopumping to occur. It is also observed that the temporal duration of the opacity‐broadened Beivemission is roughly 5 ns (FWHM), which is significantly longer than the 3‐ns driving laser pulse, and this fact can limit the efficiency of this particular x‐ray laser approach.