What is happening as it increases it's CPU usage and how can that be prevented, corrected?
kernel_task isn't the kernel though.
kernel_task is OS X's "swapper" process, hence why it's process ID number (PID) is 0. It handles scheduling and memory for other processes. It's normal for it to suck up a good bit of RAM. Don't concern yourself too much with it, unless it starts using up a lot of CPU time as well.
Oh, and don't kill it. That causes bad things to happen (kernel panic)