The ionization and radiation dynamics of dense magnetohydrodynamic plasmas has been modeled in a fashion suitable for implementation in MHD computer simulation codes. It has been shown that more restrictive LTE models such as those based on the Saha equation are inadequate to describe the rapidly varying temperature and density regimes characterizing many such plasmas. Detailed collisional‐radiative models are developed which directly solve the time‐dependent rate equations characterizing atomic processes along with those equations characterizing the hydrodynamic motion of the plasma. These models are applied to analyze high‐density‐heliumZ‐pinch and lithium exploding‐wire plasmas, and they are found to yield results which compare quite favorably with experimental data.