Pros
1. Great research facilities. The compute in terms of HPC and experimental facilities such as SNS are probably the best in the world
2. Colleagues in the lab work on a wide range of topics. Many colleagues in my experience are always enthusiastic to collaborate across different topics
Kontras
1. Current funding scenario is absolutely pathetic. Senior staff and postdocs are struggling to keep themselves funded. The situation is worsened due to the exorbitant overheads that the national lab environments
2. Owing to the high overheads, universities are often more competitive for funding than national labs
3. Due to the funding factors, conversion to staff is very uncertain, especially for postdocs