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How to explain the persistence of technical or scientific objects that seem outdated in every way? This paper tackles this issue through a case study on models assessing the transfer of radioactivity in the environment. These models appeared in the 1950s and were based on a single coefficient. Many conceptual and practical issues concerning this parameter appeared and many studies were then carried out to develop alternatives to these models that seemed outdated. Despite this amount of work, these single coefficient-based models are still the most used. This paper explains this situation that seems paradoxical with practical reasons (technical costs, social structure of expertise) and with arguments based on the functions of the models and their uses.