The neonatal brain is a vulnerable organ, and lesions due to hemorrhage and/or ischemia occur frequently in preterm neonates. Even though neuroprotective therapies exist, there is no tool available to detect the ischemic lesions. To address this problem, we have recently designed and built the new time-domain near-infrared optical tomography (TD NIROT) system - Pioneer. Here we present the results of a phantom study of the system performance. We used silicone phantoms to mimic risky situations for brain lesions: hemorrhage and hypoxia. Employing Pioneer, we were able to reconstruct accurately both position and optical properties of these inhomogeneities.